The Federal Trade Commission has approved Google’s proposed acquisition of AdMob. After reviewing the $750 million deal over the last 6 months, the agency concluded that “it is unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks.”
In a statement issued today, the commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the deal, although the combination of the two leading mobile advertising networks raised serious antitrust issues, the agency’s concerns ultimately were overshadowed by recent developments in the market, most notably a move by Apple to launch its own, competing mobile ad network with their acquisition of Quattro Wireless.
Apple’s mobile advertising network, called iAd, will allow large advertisers to run multimedia ads within applications running on the iPhone. Apple will retain 40% of the ad revenue, in line with the industry standard, with the other 60% going to the developers.
