June 17, 2011, 5:25 PM — The U.S. Department of Justice is looking at search giant Google's proposed $400 million acquisition of Internet advertising company Admeld, Bloomberg reports.
Google confirmed in a blog post on Monday that it has signed an agreement to buy New York-based Admeld, though no price was mentioned (the Wall Street Journal reported the amount earlier this week).
(Also see: Are U.S. antitrust regulators fighting to investigate Google?)
Antitrust regulators are becoming quite familiar with the search giant. The Federal Trade Commission reportedly is conducting a general antitrust probe into Google, while the company's $700 million acquisition of online travel industry player ITA Software last July was held up for about nine months before being approved (with conditions) in early April, despite aggressive lobbying by an organized group of online travel competitors.
Other Google acquisitions in recent years (DoubleClick and AdMob) also went through the regulatory wringer before being approved.
It just goes with the dominance territory, I guess.
Admeld helps online publishers manage display ads, an area of increasing interest to Google. Admeld says it has more than 500 customers around the globe, including Answers.com, FOX News, IDG TechNetwork, Hearst Television and Discovery and The Weather Channel.
Founded in 2007, Admeld has offices in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Follow Chris on Google+
