The Google-AdMob Deal is a Go: FTC Closes Investigation

Google just got a nice post-I/O gift, courtesy of the Federal Trade Commission. As of today, the FTC has, by a unanimous 5-0 vote, officially closed its investigation of Google‘s $750 million attempt to buy mobile ad company AdMob.

In their statement describing their conclusions, they specifically cite Apple’s entry into the mobile advertising market as a reason the deal is “unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks.”

From the FTC’s release:

“As a result of Apple’s entry (into the market), AdMob’s success to date on the iPhone platform is unlikely to be an accurate predictor of AdMob’s competitive significance going forward, whether AdMob is owned by Google or not,” the Commission’s statement explains.

…

[What concerns the FTC had about the deal] were outweighed by recent evidence that Apple is poised to become a strong competitor in the mobile advertising market, the FTC’s statement says. Apple recently acquired Quattro Wireless and used it to launch its own iAd service. In addition, Apple can leverage its close relationships with application developers and users, its access to a large amount of proprietary user data, and its ownership of iPhone software development tools and control over the iPhone developers’ license agreement.