We agree with much of Mr. Cleland’s analysis that the Google acquisition of Doubleclick raises serious concerns about the future of the digital marketplace. But, unlike Scott, we believe the deal has critical antitrust implications (and has nothing to do with net neutrality). Here are key excerpts from his longer piece:
“Just as Microsoft vertically-leveraged (bundled/tied) its operating system dominance to dominate the office applications market via the Windows platform, Google apparently looks to vertically-leverage (bundle/tie) its keyword search dominance with DoubleClick’s leadership in online banner/video display advertising, and with its Google-YouTubedominance in video search…This vertical combination reportedly could give Google-DoubleClick upwards of 80% of the overall market for advertisements provided to third-party websites. Just like Microsoft became the default office applications platformfor email, e-calendars, word processing, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint, for any user, Google has obvious designs on becoming the default Internet advertising broker/platform for: keywords, website display ads, and TV, radio, newspaper/magazine advertisingfor the average large advertiser… If Google can gain the first-mover advantages of offering advertisers the super- efficiencies of cross-media-platform advertising optimization, i.e. a vertically-integrated/tied advertising platform, individual advertising mediums and companies will largely be at their (anti-)competitive mercy going forward. Game. Set. Match…The DoubleClick acquisition, like Google’s acquisition of YouTube, is really all about achieving competitive foreclosure long term. Google’s “partnership’ strategy is also all about competitive foreclosure…”
