A click away from world domination?
TEXT OF STORY
Lisa Napoli: Later today on Capitol Hill, a Senate subcommittee hears testimony about the proposed $3.1 billion merger of Google and DoubleClick. Privacy advocates and anti-trust officials the world over have been looking at this deal. Marketplace’s Steve Henn has this preview:
Steve Henn: What happens if you cross Google with DoubleClick? Could a “GoobleClick” destroy competition on the Internet?
Scott Cleland thinks so:
Scott Cleland: This merger really is different.
Cleland is a tech-analyst, and an expert witness at today’s Senate hearing.
Cleland: It’s the most far-reaching, least understood, most important merger they’ve ever reviewed.
Why? Cleland says market power and privacy. The combined company would dominate Internet search and display ads. And:
Cleland: Google-DoubleClick would have more private information on more individuals in the world than any company or any entity in the history of the world.
But Tom Lenard at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a right-leaning think tank, is unmoved.
Tom Lenard: The use of personal information to deliver advertising and marketing messages is good for consumers.
He says the more Google knows about you, the more well-suited the ads it puts before your eyeballs are. And really, what’s wrong with that?
In Washington, I’m Steve Henn for Marketplace.
Napoli: And one bit more about Google’s world domination. The Financial Times said this morning the company’s going to increase its staff by a third — much of it in Europe.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
