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Page 50

EU Commission allows Google's purchase of DoubleClick

Having already been approved by United States antitrust authorities, Google has achieved complete approval from the European Commission to acquire rival Web advertiser "DoubleClick" for $3.1 billion. The Commission declared that "[Our] in-depth market investigation found that Google and DoubleClick were not exerting major competitive constraints on each other's activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors at the moment." Competitors such as Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo had opposed the approval. The Commission opined, however, that the acquisition would not generate enough power to marginalize Google's competitors in "ad serving." This process uses software to help advertisers target potential customers. At the same time, it believed, the purchase would aid advertisers in marketing blank space on their Websites. Promoters of individual privacy objected that the deal would enable the two companies to unduly magnify privacy invasions by combining their different methods of exploiting information about the habits of Web surfers.

citation: Reuters News Service (Online), Brussels, Belgium, published Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 10:01 a.m. ET (Reported by David Lawsky, edited by William Schomberg and Quentin Bryar).

U S. agrees to visa waiver programs with Latvia and Estonia and is negotiating with other former Eastern Bloc nations

On March 12, 2008, the United States signed agreements with EU members Latvia and Estonia that will enable the these two Baltic nations to join the U.S. visa waiver program this year. In both countries, there are now Memoranda of Understanding that will enable the two nations' law enforcement authorities to share passenger data and air travel information; these are legal prerequisites for a visa Page 51 waiver program. Estonian tourists should be able to travel visa-free to the U.S. later this year. These arrangements, however, seemingly annoy Brussels, since the European Commission is at the same time trying to settle on a visa-waiver agreement for the entire 27-nation European Union. U.S. officials are...