Deals
Two Antitrust Watchdogs Go at It
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(Changed to clarify Varney's comments in the seventh paragraph.)
The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Dept. have been arguing since at least 2008 over which agency should take the lead in investigating Google's (GOOG) business operations. The agencies have split antitrust reviews of the Mountain View (Calif.) company's deals, with the FTC scrutinizing Google's acquisitions of AdMob and DoubleClick along with claims that its Buzz social-networking service violated privacy rights. The DOJ examined Google's acquisition of ITA Software, a potential advertising alliance with Yahoo! (YHOO), and Google's plan to create a digital library.