Merger Would Enable an Extreme New "Web of Market Power."
Washington (PRWEB) September 27, 2007 -- Precursor President Scott Cleland testified today before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights and recommended the panel oppose the proposed Google-DoubleClick merger. In his testimony, Cleland explained that the Google-DoubleClick merger would create extreme market concentration and "tip" the online advertising market, the economically critical market which is the only proven monetization engine of Internet content, to a bottleneck.
"This merger review is a watershed moment for internet competition," Cleland said. "I believe Google-DoubleClick is clearly one of the most far-reaching, least-understood and important mergers this subcommittee has ever reviewed."
Explaining the high stakes of lax antitrust enforcement, Cleland stated the DoubleClick acquisition would enable Google to become the de facto:
- "Online-advertising bottleneck provider", picking Internet content winners and losers;
- "Ultimate Internet Gatekeeper", deciding which Internet content gets viewed;
- "Internet's paymaster", determining which Web sites get paid how much; and
- "Internet market maker" that has uniquely comprehensive market intelligence and information on advertisers, websites, ad-inventory, viewers, and Internet user behavior.
"The combined Google-DoubleClick would have no effective checks and balances and little accountability to consumers, competition, regulators, or third-party oversight," Cleland said.
Cleland released a report to the FTC and Congress in July that warned of the potential "Googleopoly"; the text of the report can be found at www.Googleopoly.net. Cleland's full Senate Judiciary Subcommittee testimony and charts will be made available on www.Googleopoly.net during Thursday's hearing.
Precursor is an industry research and consulting firm, specializing in the converging techcom sector. Precursor offers rare forward-looking expertise and national credibility at the nexus of: capital markets, public policy and techcom industry change, to help companies better capitalize on emerging opportunities and guard against emerging risks. www.precursor.com
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