FTC Approves Google Purchase of AdMob

The Federal Trade Commission voted five to zero to give regulatory approval to Google’s acquisition of the mobile advertising network AdMob. The deal was first announced last November. The Commission concluded the acquisition is unlikely to harm competition in the mobile advertising networks market. The Commission relied on recent evidence demonstrating Apple will be a strong competitor in the mobile advertising market. (Apple recently acquired Quattro Wireless for use in connection with the Apple iAd service.) The deal may signal increased interest in acquiring businesses in the digital advertising space — Gavin D. McElroy

More Bad News for Big Online Music Publishers

In addition to the other problems music publishers have faced in the past few years, we can now add the possibility of civil liability for violations of US and state antitrust laws. That was the holding in a recent Second Circuit case reinstating a lawsuit that had been dismissed in 2008.

In Starr v. Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a group of online music buyers sued the largest music publishers and distributors for an alleged conspiracy to “restrain the availability and distribution of Internet Music, fix and maintain at artificially high and non-competitive levels the prices at which they sold Internet Music, and impose unreasonably restrictive terms in the purchase and use of Internet Music.” Read more »