The United States Federal Trade Commission has given the green light to Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) $750 million acquisition of AdMob, closing its investigation of a deal that the FTC acknowledged could raise "serious antitrust issues." Indeed, some consumer groups have charged that such a deal could give Google a dominant position in the field and drive up prices for advertisers.

So what prompted the FTC to approve the acquisition? In one word: Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). The FTC, in its official statement (pdf), wrote that: "The Commission reached this decision based on important developments in the mobile advertising marketplace, particularly actions by Apple that should mitigate the anticompetitive effects of Google's AdMob acquisition."

In summary, Apple's entry into the mobile advertising field with its acquisition of Quttro Wireless swayed the odds in Google's favor. As a result, the FTC explained that "AdMob's success to date on the iPhone platform is unlikely to be an accurate predictor of AdMob's competitive significance going forward, whether AdMob is owned by Google or not." The vote in favor of closing the investigation was a unanimous 5-0.

Google's vice president of product management, Susan Wojcicki, said the decision is "great news for the mobile advertising ecosystem as a whole." In a blog post, Wojcicki said. "As an immediate matter, we're now moving to close this acquisition in coming weeks. We'll then start work right away on bringing AdMob's and Google's teams and products together."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at ECommerge-Guide.com
- check out this article at Ars Technica 

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