Google Inc. (GOOG) confirmed in a regulatory filing that the FTC is looking for additional information related to its proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick Inc., an ad-management technology company.The FTC review was widely anticipated, as Google rivals have been apprehensive whether the deal would give the search leader an unfair edge in the booming online advertising market. Microsoft Corp., AT&T Inc., and Time Warner Inc. raised anti-competition concerns regarding the deal last month, when Google announced its plans to buy DoubleClick.DoubleClick helps customers place and track online advertising, including search ads, which is Google's core and lucrative business. The anti-competitive concerns are not totally unfounded, as Google is already the leader in the online ad search market, and the addition of DoubleClick's technology and client network would serve to further enhance the company's initiatives to spread its wings beyond its core ad offerings.Google is confident that the deal would withstand FTC scrutiny and believes the deal will be approved and close by this year-end. The company cited other acquisitions announced since it unveiled its DoubleClick deal last month - as evidence that there is plenty of room for competition to play the online advertising field.Microsoft recently announced a $6 billion deal to buy online-ad specialist aQuantive Inc. and Yahoo Inc. agreed to pay $680 million for the 80% stake in online ad exchange operator Right Media Inc. not owned by it.Google has already submitted basic information related to the proposed deal to regulators after announcing the deal, and said it is working closely with DoubleClick to file additional information sought by the FTC.Meanwhile, Google has quietly snapped up GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed startup that sells anti-malware programs. Anti-malware is a collective term for anti-virus programs, spyware blockers, intrusion detection systems and other software that detects and eliminates unnecessary input, which stems from Internet sessions mostly.GreenBorder's software creates a barrier to isolate the Windows desktop from interactions with any website and related content including downloads and e-mail messages.GreenBorder's "virtualization" technology establishes temporary, virtual sessions whenever the Web is surfed, and then throws away the data resulting from these online interactions, thereby insulating computers from malicious code that could be cleverly camouflaged within an e-mail or other web content.The technology creates a sandbox or security zone for web browsing, so any harmful code picked up during the online session gets deleted as soon as the browser is closed. When the service is active, a green border surrounds the browser to assure the user that these sessions are contained and the PCs will not be infected by these interactions.According to Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald, GreenBorder's "virtualization" technology competes with software offerings from Microsoft Corp and EMC Corp.'s VMware.The application is available for use in both Internet Explorer and Firefox and the Windows version of the software is currently available on Download.com for $29.95. Well, may be Google will make it free.
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May 22, 2026 14:46 ET Minutes of the latest Fed policy session was the highlight of the week along with survey data on the U.S. housing market. In Europe, survey data signaled the trends in the euro area private sector. Further, consumer price inflation data from the U.K. was in focus. In Asia, various economic indicators from China drew attention to the health of the economy.