AD BIG RIPS GOOGLE DEAL

Martin Sorrell, head of the world’s second-biggest advertising group, joined the industry-wide attack on Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of the online advertising broker DoubleClick.

The chief executive of WPP said the deal, which combines Google’s dominance in search advertising with DoubleClick’s strength in display, “clearly raised some regulatory issues.”

The comments come in the wake of AT&T and Microsoft’s assertion that a Google/DoubleClick tie-up would dominate Internet advertising.

Sorrell, who was outbid in the auction for DoubleClick, also warned that the acquisition could hand the search engine giant too much information, because it combines Google’s personal search data with DoubleClick’s knowledge of advertiser preferences.

“It raises some issues for us. It raises issues as to whether we are happy to let Google have our clients’ data and our own data which Google could use for its own purposes,” he said.

DoubleClick acts as an online media buyer, in competition with WPP, remembering the sites an Internet user has visited and delivering relevant display ads.

Google, which Sorrell has in the past described as a “frenemy” (a short-term friend, but a long-term enemy), stores search data performed by users.

Sorrell said WPP is well-positioned to weather the increase in competition from Google because it already has deals with both of the companies involved in the tie-up.

The chief executive’s comments came as WPP reported a 0.7 percent fall in revenue to $2.72 billion over the course of the first three months of this year.

The slide was blamed on an 11 percent decline in the dollar against the British pound. The Times of London