Google’s facing further delays in its acquisition of internet advertising company AdMeld, with the Department of Justice making a second request for information about the deal.
The $400 million acquisition was announced last month, with Google hoping to use it to simplify and improve its online display advertising. But the DoJ is concerned that it could give Google an overly-dominant position in the display ad market.
Google’s playing down the importance of the request.
“As they do for many acquisitions, they have sent us a ‘second request’, which means that they are asking for more information in order to complete their review of this particular acquisition. This doesn’t surprise us, as today’s display advertising industry is very new and highly complex,” says Google VP of display advertising Neal Mohan.
“But we’ll work to enable this review to be concluded as quickly as possible – display advertising is highly competitive and fast moving, and we don’t want our efforts to bring better services to our clients to be delayed.”
However, such requests can and do lead to problems. This time last yeart, for example, the DoJ asked for more information about Google’s proposed acquisition of online travel company ITA Software. It held the deal up for months, and led to some major concessions from Google.
“Though we’re disappointed by this decision because it will delay our efforts to bring even more innovative services to our clients and partners, we recognize it takes time to analyze any industry as competitive and dynamic as this,” says AdMeld Michael Barrett.
