Microsoft complains to senators about Google buying DoubleClick (San Francisco Chronicle)

"This merger will undoubtedly result in higher profits for the operator of the dominant advertising pipeline, but it will be bad for everyone else," Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel for Microsoft, told the Senate panel. "It will be bad for publishers, bad for advertisers and, most importantly, bad for consumers."

David Drummond, Google's senior vice president for corporate development and chief legal officer, went on the offensive at the hearing, noting that his company is not the only one gobbling up online advertising companies this year.

In April, Yahoo bought Right Media, an online ad exchange, for $680 million. In May, Microsoft bought aQuantive, an online ad company, for $6 billion, and AOL bought AdTech AG for an undisclosed amount.

Drummond insisted the deal does not violate antitrust law because the two companies are in related businesses, but do not directly compete.”