Online advertising comes full-circle

Yesterday the European Union approved Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, reports the Associated Press.

EU regulators decided the purchase would not impede competition in the online ad market. Other players, like Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL, would still provide viable alternatives to Google, it ruled.

One factor that did not play into the EU board's decision was privacy, a trump card some groups tried pulling to discourage approval of the deal. Critics say the acquisition will give Google access to more user information than ever and should be rejected on those grounds.

The EU's regulatory body committed to more closely examine data protection and privacy in coming months.

In December, the Google/DoubleClick merger won approval by the Federal Trade Commission.

Shortly after news broke of the EU's approval, Google CEO Eric Schmidt made the formal announcement that the acquisition had been completed via the Official Google Blog. The company first placed its bid for DoubleClick in early 2007, beating a bid by Microsoft, which ultimately became a vocal opponent to finalization of the acquisition.