Lawmakers ask FTC for briefing, inquiry on Google-AdMob deal

Lawmakers on the House Commerce Committee are prepared to wade into federal regulators' ongoing review of Google's proposed purchase of AdMob, a mobile advertising firm. As the Federal Trade Commission reportedly readies a legal team to challenge that deal, five committee Democrats and Republicans asked the panel on Friday to brief them soon on Google's attempted $750-million buy, which critics say could threaten competition in the neophyte mobile ad industry. The letter heavily references criticism levied by Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-WI), the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that chiefly handles anti-trust issues, who wrote the FTC in April to point out potential, "important competition issues." Kohl, however, stressed at the time he had not yet formed a final opinion on the deal. Lawmakers' latest letter, dated Friday, specifically questions whether the "combined company" could eventually come to control "a substantially greater share of such advertising than its closest competitor." They also asked the FTC to note whether the transaction would further boost Google's dominance in the online advertising world, and whether that could result in higher prices for advertisers or lower revenue for Google's chief competitors, especially in the mobile ad world.