7 March 2008
Google's acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick may be cleared by European antitrust regulators as early as next week, according to a news report.
The Financial Times reported on its website that the European Commission is set to approve the purchase without attaching any significant conditions. Citing unnamed sources, the report said:
The date for the formal clearance is now understood to have been set provisionally for next Tuesday.
Google's acquisition of DoubleClick was cleared by American regulators late last year, despite the vocal opposition of rivals including Microsoft leaving European clearance as its last remaining barrier.
Google initially made the £3.1billion bid for DoubleClick in April 2007. The deal would mark an important milestone in the company's move away from its core strengths in the search advertising operations and into
the online display advertising market.
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