We know that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google’s bid to acquire AdMob for more than $700 million, but the governmental agency may not have had an open mind during the process, according to one person interviewed.
Echofon, the maker of a Twitter app, said in a blog post that the FTC clearly had a strong agenda. The company said it was generally in favor of the mobile advertising deal because it could create a good counterweight for the iAd platform in iPhone 4.0 OS. That didn’t appear to go over well with the FTC.
To me, the problem was that the FTC seemed to be determined to stop the deal from the beginning. Though they did agree to put together the declaration close enough to my belief in the end, I felt I was pressured to say things in a way that met their goal. (The word “interrogation” came to my mind several times while talking to them.)
Now I hear that the FTC is revisiting the issue by taking into consideration the Apple-Quattro acquisition. That’s a good thing. We do want the mobile ad industry to grow healthily, and hope the FTC makes the right judgment without preconceived notions.
I’ve done a lot of thinking about the government’s role in the mobile advertising space (and the mobile space in general) and I think it needs to not have a heavy hand. While I appreciate it trying to make sure no one can use pressure to grab a monopolistic share, this is a nascent market that is still, at best, worth $500 million this year. The revenue isn’t that important but it’s disturbing to hear that the governmental agency may be coming from a biased perspective – just get the facts and simply call the balls and strikes, I say.
We’ve already seen potential mobile ad competitors like 4INFO give Google’s deal its blessing and I think it’s safe to assume iAd will be a success too. Let’s hope that the Echofon account was an isolated incident and that the FTC will give the deal a fair shake, however it rules.
[Via Echofon blog]