Google Corporation is close to the purchase of ITA for $ 700 million

This year, Google was going to spend several billion dollars to buy various companies and startups. Several planned transactions have already been completed, but one of the most ambitious transactions still does not take place. We are talking about the company ITA Software, which develops software for finding tickets. Google became interested in the company in July last year, but the US antimonopoly officers suspended the deal to conduct their own investigation of it.

Last year, the US antitrust services began to operate after a number of complaints from Microsoft and other companies appeared, believing that if Google made a deal, then the competition in the field of buying airline tickets online would end. Perhaps these companies were not so wrong, and the regulators are still checking. True, there was information that the results of the audit can be announced already if not this week, then at the next exactly.
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There are two scenarios. In Perov, Google does get permission to conduct this transaction, and ITA Software becomes part of the corporation. In this case, in the company's search engine, you may soon receive relevant user request for information about the cost of tickets for various destinations of flights and other information. In general, such a scenario really threatens the business of other companies that also sell tickets on the web.

There is a second scenario: the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) prohibits a transaction. In this case, there is a very high probability of the start of a large-scale antitrust investigation into the Google case by the regulator. About 10 years ago, Microsoft experienced the effect of the US legislative machine, but it seemed to get off with a slight fright (except for the fact that Gates had to resign as the head of Microsoft). Then Microsoft was threatened by the division into several parts.

The situation is quite tense, but Google believes that everything will end well, since the company “works for users.”

Via CNET