Google Inc, whose proposed acquisition of DoubleClick Inc is being investigated by US antitrust officials, expects to complete the US$3.1 billion purchase by this year, chairman and chief executive officer Eric Schmidt said.
"We are not concerned" about the US Federal Trade Commission [FTC] probe, Schmidt told reporters at a technology conference in Seoul yesterday. "We're quite convinced that the proposed merger meets all of the appropriate US laws."
Schmidt said that US regulatory approval of his company's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick would not be hindered by possible concerns over privacy.
Last month, Google agreed to buy DoubleClick to boost online advertising sales.
The move prompted companies including Microsoft Corp and AT&T Inc to ask for a review of the purchase, saying it would give Google too much control in the US$28.8 billion global online advertising market.
New York-based DoubleClick helps its customers place and track online advertising, including search ads, which Google -- more than its nearest search competitors Yahoo Inc and Microsoft -- has turned into an extremely lucrative business.
Google confirmed on Tuesday that the FTC was conducting an antitrust review of the deal.
Typically, antitrust reviews focus on monopoly concerns, such as whether the combined company will be able to raise prices without fear of competition. But there is precedent for them to address privacy worries, analysts said.
Schmidt said that Google, when considering the acquisition, "looked very carefully" at privacy and other issues that would come under legal review "because we knew competitors would raise those issues, as indeed they have."
Mountain View, California-based Google yesterday launched a new Korean-language Web site to attract more users and help it compete against bigger rivals in a country where six out of seven homes already have high-speed Internet access, the world's highest proportion.
The launch was announced by Schmidt during a keynote speech to the Seoul Digital Forum.
The new Google Korea search site deviates from its previous version which features just a simple search box, by adding graphics features -- an animated main menu and product buttons -- above and below the box.
Still, Google lags behind South Korea's NHN Corp and Daum Communications Corp in the country's Internet search market.
Schmidt said his company was committed to expanding its presence in South Korea.
"It's obvious to me that Korea is a great laboratory of the digital age," he said in the speech.
On Tuesday, US Internet security start-up firm GreenBorder, which specializes in using "virtualization" to create safe zones for online activities, said it has been bought by Google.
Google confirmed the purchase of GreenBorder, saying the deal was completed in the middle of this month.
"We were impressed by GreenBorder's small team of talented engineers and believe they can help to build products and features that will benefit our users, advertisers and publishers," Google said.
The terms of the deal and Google's specific plans for GreenBorder's technology were not disclosed.
GreenBorder lets computer operators combine hardware and software to create "virtual" machines where tasks such as reading e-mail or exploring Web sites can be done without exposing systems to viruses or other malicious programs.
Web-based programs that try to access files or computer registries are stopped from leaving what are commonly referred to as online "sandboxes" created by GreenBorder.
The virtual "sandboxes" vanish at the end of each session, taking hacker assaults such as spyware, viruses and trojan horses with them.
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