FTC approves Google’s AdMob takeover
Google’s proposed $750 takeover of AdMob has been approved by US regulator the Federal Trade Commission because other large companies such as Apple are entering the mobile ad market.
In a statement issued on Friday, the FTC said: “Although the combination of the two leading mobile advertising networks raised serious anti-trust issues, they were overshadowed by recent developments in the market, most notably a move by Apple Computer to launch its own, competing mobile ad network.”
It also noted that other handset manufacturers were starting to produce more smartphones and therefore were likely to enter the mobile ad market, which would further “facilitate competition among mobile advertising networks”.
Omar Hamoui, AdMob CEO, said, “Together, Google and AdMob will be able to bring a whole host of new products and capabilities to mobile advertising.”
The ruling came late last week after Google announced a series of updates to its mobile portfolio at its I/O Developer conference. Google unveiled its Android 2.2 operating system, which contains portable hotspot functionality, support for Adobe Flash within the Android browser, and improvements to its app store Android Market.
The company also claimed it was activating 100,000 Android handsets a day and that there were more than 50,000 apps in the Android Market.
This story first appeared on newmediaage.co.uk
