The FTC today cleared Google’s acquisition of AdMob – a good decision – stating that “the Commission voted unanimously to close its investigation of Google’s acquisition of AdMob because it lacked reason to believe that the transaction would likely result in a substantial lessening of competition, especially in light of marketplace developments that occurred during the course of its investigation….In any nascent market there will be uncertainty about the path of competition and the durability of early leads in market share.” This is the difficulty of applying the merger guidelines in such markets. It’s good that the Commission came to this decision and did so unanimously. To the extent that this sends a signal to other start-ups in similar situations, it is a pro-innovation signal, as I discussed in an earlier piece.
