Mobile Networks Featured Article

Google (News - Alert) might find out today whether the Federal Trade Commission will oppose or approve of Google's proposed $750 million acquisition of AdMob. The betting seems to be that the FTC (News - Alert) will, in fact, oppose the deal, which means Google will have to launch a court challenge to proceed.

The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg have reported that the FTC is leaning towards blocking the deal. The FTC reportedly is worried that the deal will reduce competition in the mobile in-application advertising market.

The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission reportedly also are discussing which of the watchdog agencies will begin an antitrust inquiry into Apple's new policy of requiring software developers who devise applications for devices such as the iPhone (News - Alert) and iPad to use only Apple's programming tools.

Regulators apparently are concerned the policy harms competition by forcing programmers to choose between developing apps that can run only on Apple (News - Alert) devices, compared to platform-neutral versions.

The apparent interest shows that Apple has gotten big enough now to come under the typical scrutiny dominant firms always face.

The inquiry does not mean that there will be a full-blown investigation, only that there is some level of concern. Now that Apple's equity value ($237.6 billion) is bigger than Wal-Mart's ($201.7 billion), such scrutiny now will become an on-going concern for Apple, which will henceforth have to consider antitrust implications as part of its strategy.