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Groups Want FTC Chair Off Google-DoubleClick Deal

Google has encountered yet another obstacle to its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have asked FTC Chairperson Deborah Majoras to recuse herself from reviewing the acquisition, citing a conflict of interest. The groups charge that Majoras’ husband, an antitrust attorney, works for Jones Day, […]

Majoras
Google has encountered yet another obstacle to its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have asked FTC Chairperson Deborah Majorasto recuse herself from reviewing the acquisition, citing a conflict of interest. The groups charge that Majoras' husband, an antitrust attorney, works for Jones Day, a law firm that represents DoubleClick. Majoras also, according to the groups, previously worked for the firm.

Spokespeople from the FTC, Jones Day, Google and DoubleClick were not immediately available to comment.

It's been roughly 8 months since Google announced the DoubleClick acquisition, and in that time the deal has been under more than a little scrutiny: Company executives were called to testify before the House and Senate in Washington; and last month the antitrust arm of European Commission nixed approval of the deal, citing competitive concerns, and ordered an in-depth review of the acquisition. In the meantime, Yahoo closed on a $680 million acquisition of RightMedia in July, and Microsoft closed on its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive in August.

UPDATE: FTC spokeswoman Nancy Judy called in with the following response:

First the chairman is reviewing the petition with the FTC's chief ethics officer.

Second, we learned only yesterday that Jones Day is representing DoubleClick before the European Commission.

Third, Jones Day has not appeared before the FTC in this matter.

Photo: Courtesy FTC

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