Google Gets US Justice Department Approval To Buy Admeld

Dec 2, 2011 at 1:27pm ET by Pamela Parker

Google has gotten Department of Justice (DOJ) approval to move forward with its planned acquisition of Admeld, the sell-side optimization firm that helps publishers maximize revenues from their display advertising inventory. Though Google hasn’t disclosed how much the deal was worth, various news outlets valued it at $400MM when it was first announced in June.

In a statement on the approval, the DOJ said it has concluded the deal won’t harm competition in the sale of display advertising, especially given the developments in sell-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-side platforms (DSPs) in the industry lately.

“The investigation determined that web publishers often rely on multiple display advertising platforms and can move business among them in response to changes in price or the quality of ad placements. This use of multiple display advertising platforms, commonly called ‘multi-homing,’ lessens the risk that the market will tip to a single dominant platform. In addition, there have been recent SSP and advertising exchange entrants in the display advertising industry,” said the DOJ press release.

When announcing the deal, Google cited the recent surge in investment in the arena as evidence that there was plenty of competition. Yahoo recently acquired 5to1, and players like Pubmatic and Rubicon Project have been growing quickly.

Google says Admeld’s products will be operated separately from DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange for now, according to Neil Mohan, VP of display advertising, but eventually the company will explore ways to bring the businesses together.

For related commentary on this across the web, see Techmeme.

About The Author: Pamela Parker is executive features editor of Marketing Land and a contributing editor for Search Engine Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. See more articles by Pamela Parker

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