Today ClickZ reported that the Google AdMob deal has been unanimously approved by the FTC.
The FTC themselves realease a press release stating that the $750m deal “is unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks“
Despite “serious anti-trust” issues emanating from two of the largest mobile ad networks combining, their concerns were mitigated by Apple entering the market to launch their own competing mobile ad network, iAD.
“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.
A number of other companies, unnamed in the announcement, are reported to developing or acquiring smart phone technology too, to compete against the iPhone and Android, meaning there is likely to be strong incentives to facilitate competition among mobile advertising networks.
Indeed, Yahoo is expected to announce the ‘Project Nike’ partnership with Nokia, next monday at their investor summit. Google echoed belief in the FTC assessment and that competition was imminent and good for the industry, in a blog post.
“As mobile phone usage increases, growth in mobile advertising is only going to accelerate. This benefits mobile developers and publishers who will get better advertising solutions, marketers who will find new ways to reach consumers, and users who will get better ads and more free content” said Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management for Google.