Google today announced that its acquisition of leading mobile advertising firm Admob has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission, but some opponents of the deal disapprove of the FTC decision.
It gives Google more ammunition against Apple, which has its own mobile ad platform called iAd and promises to revolutionize the still-undefined market of advertising on cell phones and media tablets.
“This benefits mobile developers and publishers who will get better advertising solutions, marketers who will find new ways to reach consumers, and users who will get better ads and more free content,” wrote Google VP Susan Wojcicki on the company’s official blog.
However, not everyone is happy about the deal. The Consumer Watchdog group sent out a statement on Friday calling the FTC approval an “incomprehensible” decision.
“The FTC is allowing the two dominant companies in mobile advertising to combine in a monopolistic juggernaut against the third-place company, owned by Apple,” said a spokesperson for the group, John M. Simpson. “What it demonstrates is Google’s clout in Washington.”
Consumer Watchdog’s statement provides little substance for why the deal shouldn’t have been approved, but points to numerous meetings between Google and government officials as creating a political environment of impropriety.
“Clearly Google is willing to pull in political chits from the White House to influence FTC deliberations. Did the White House attempt to influence the AdMob decision? The public deserves to know,” said Simpson.
Consumer Watchdog has launched a new Web site, InsideGoogle.com, which it claims is a source for people to find out what is really going on in those Mountain View, California studios. The site asks for people to share stories about how “Google has done you wrong.”
