Google-Doubleclick deal faces antitrust probe by lawmakers

WASHINGTON -- A US congressional subcommittee is investigating Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of online advertising company DoubleClick Inc., the panel's chairman said.

The Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection subcommittee of the US House of Representatives will hold a hearing after lawmakers return from their August recess, Representative Bobby Rush, Illinois Democrat, said Tuesday in a letter to Federal Trade Commission chairman Deborah Platt Majoras.

Majoras's agency is investigating the purchase to determine whether it is anticompetitive. Rush asked her to brief his panel on the investigation in a private meeting.

Google, owner of the world's most-popular search engine, disclosed plans to buy DoubleClick in April to bolster sales of Internet ads with pictures and videos.

The FTC began looking into the deal in May. Last week, European Union regulators said they would review the transaction.

Senator Herb Kohl, Wisconsin Democrat, who heads a subcommittee on antitrust and competition issues, also is looking at the merger, his spokeswoman Lynn Becker said yesterday. The senator hopes to hold a hearing in September, she said.