The Federal Trade Commission has launched a preliminary antitrust review of Google's proposed $3.1 billion purchase of online ad giant DoubleClick. Although many similar reviews go nowhere, the government is closely scrutinizing the Google acquisition, which other tech companies such as Microsoft (DoubleClick's spurned suitor), AT&T and Time Warner want investigated. Privacy advocates also voiced immediate concern after the deal was announced last month, saying that combining DoubleClick's ability to track what sites people visit with Google's propensity for collecting search histories puts too much information about internet users in the hands of one company.
More information from the New York Times and Associated Press here and here, respectively.
