Why/how did Google outbid Apple for AdMob? Schmidt: Google Apple not "primary competitors"
Recent revelations indicate that the seriousness of the FTC's antitrust investigation of Google's proposed acquisition of AdMob will be ramping up.
Only eight months ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt claimed Google and Apple were not "primary competitors" when a shareholder asked Mr. Schmidt to step down from Apple's board, because of an FTC antitrust investigation of Google for engaging in anti-competitive interlocking directorates per an AP story.
- Only four months ago did Mr. Schmidt actually resign from the Apple board under pressure from the FTC.
While everyone is distracted by the front-page news of Google launching its own Google-manufactured smartphone called Nexus One, what I find most interesting is that Google outbid Apple for AdMob by paying an exceptionally-high "multiple of up to ~16.7 times sales, the sort of price rarely seen in takeover deals since the heady days of the dot-com boom" per Reuters reports.