Regulators clear Time Warner purchase
Market competition regulators in the US have cleared Time Warner’s purchase of online advertising company Tacoda, a recently-released notice has revealed.
The document, sent out by the Federal Trade Commission, failed to disclose the terms of the deal. Tacoda is a company based in New York that delivers advertising based on a surfer’s browsing habits. It will become a subsidiary of Time Warner’s AOL unit.
When the purchase was first announced last month, Time Warner executives said that the transaction would allow it to deliver more relevant adverts. The new system will pick up on browsers’ web habits, so someone keen on visiting pages about cars might view an automotive advert while looking at a non-related site.
The takeover comes at a time of increasing industry consolidation in the internet advertising world, with Yahoo, recently acquiring Right Media and Microsoft buying out aQuantive.
The FTC is also currently investigating a proposed deal that will see Google take over DoubleClick, with critics saying that the deal will stifle competition in the sector.
