Scott Cleland has done a signficant amount of research and investigation into the Google acquisition and potential merger of DoubleClick…

My detailed analysis over the last several weeks leads me to believe that the FTC is likely to block the Google-DoubleClick merger because it will enable Google to dominate online advertising and dramatically increase the opportunity for market collusion and price manipulation in the market for consumer click data, ad-performance tools, ad-brokering and ad-exchanges.

Here is the the 35 page white paper that he references.

So, is Cleland onto something?

Duncan Riley gives some background into Cleland’s potential bias in a post over on TechCrunch.

Cleland?s analysis of Google?s acquisition of DoubleClick though needs some perspective. Cleland is also an anti-net neutrality activist who has backed the position of the existing telecommunications players in testimony to a Congressional hearing; simply as with any analyst or lobbyist, he makes a case that is usually in line with the concerns or beliefs of the industry that backs him. The only real question with this report: who wants Google?s DoubleClick acquisition to fail this badly?

As Riley points out (accurately, I believe), the FTC and the current administration have been much more hands off in their approach to questions of monopolistic practices than in previous decades.  The stiffest opposition will come from the Congress members and Senators who are in the (very deep) pockets of the telecoms and media companies who do not want this deal to go through for fear of a Google Future.

The bigger question for me is what happens to Performics either way?

Why the FTC Will Likely Block the Google-DoubleClick Merger | The Precursor Blog by Scott Cleland