Are Google and DoubleClick a Threat to You?
There’s a lot of sky-is-falling handwringing about the proposed Google - DoubleClick merger. Some claim it would create a monopoly that violates antitrust laws. The Federal Trade Commission and its European Union counterpart will be reviewing those claims. In addition, competitors such as Microsoft (with a straight face) argue that the proposed deal raises privacy concerns. Since when has Microsoft been concerned about your privacy?
One of the really cool things about the Internet is that you can always find a niche and monetize it. The big mergers won’t affect you because if the large conglomerate gets out of hand, new competitors spring up overnight to profit from its incompetence.
Google’s growth has reached the stage that it is where Microsoft was at in the late 1990s. The company has become too large to turn on a dime and the only way to grow is to acquire other companies because internal creativity stagnates with each new layer of bureaucratic management.
Remember the AOL - Time Warner merger? The same arguments were made about that as we’re seeing today. Needless to say, that merger didn’t take over the world. Heck, I’m just thrilled when my Time Warner Internet access works so I don’t have to head to a Starbucks to use T-Mobile wi-fi as a backup for online access.
If the current deal falls apart because of antitrust concerns, it will be a shame. Let the free market work. You’ll be able to compete and make money online even if Microsoft and Google were to merge one day.
About the Author
With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 14 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young shows entrepreneurs how to protect and grow their businesses online. He's the author of "Internet Marketing
Legal Secrets Revealed," "How to Create Your Own Internet Business Without a Lawyer for Under $175," and the creator of Website
Legal Forms GeneratorTM. Not just a lawyer who focuses exclusively on Internet and marketing law, Mike’s been working with computers for more than 27 years (his first computer was an Atari 400 with 8 KiB RAM) and started representing Internet businesses back in 1996.
