Google's Acquisition of AdMob Delayed for Further FTC Scrutiny

Google today announced that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has requested additional information on the company's proposed acquisition of mobile advertising firm AdMob as the regulatory agency continues to investigate the appropriateness of the deal.

As we said when we announced the deal, we don't see any regulatory issues with this deal, because the rapidly growing mobile advertising space is highly competitive with more than a dozen mobile ad networks.

That said, we know that closer scrutiny has been one consequence of Google's success, and we've been talking to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over the past few weeks. This week we received what's called a "second request," which means that the FTC is asking for more information so that they can continue to review the deal.

Apple and AdMob had reportedly met in the weeks before the deal with Google was announced, as Apple was apparently considering making its own offer to acquire AdMob. AdMob is currently the world's largest mobile advertising company, and thus a major player in the iPhone development community.