Google expects the U.S. Dept. of Justice to take up an antitrust inquiry into the company's proposed $700 million acquisition of ITA Software, and not the Federal Trade Commission, according to a source close to the matter.
The New York Times reported that Google would probably favor an inquiry by the FTC, which signed off on Google's recent acquisition of AdMob and its earlier purchase of DoubleClick.
Google doesn't care which agency handles the review, according to the source, and expects the DOJ to get the assignment given its track record in taking up aviation- and travel-related issues.
For example, in 2003, the DOJ cleared then-airline-owned Orbitz of antitrust violations.
Of course, Google may be putting out word that it has no preference which agency handles the issue because it believes that the DOJ ultimately will tackle the inquiry.
At any rate, Google is expressing confidence that the ITA Software acquisition will go through as the vast majority of vertical acquisitions -- even of industry-leading companies -- earn regulatory approval.
For example, in 2002 the DOJ declined to put any hurdles in the way of eBay's acquisition of PayPal, and in 2005 the department approved the Adobe-Macromedia deal.
Meanwhile, lacking a lot of detail, elements of the travel industry are still keen on learning more about what Google will do with ITA Software if the deal gets approved.
Will it be a metasearch product, for instance?
Will Google assign ITA, which focuses on air search, to get into developing a hotel-search product?
Those sorts of answers will have to wait for an extended period of time because the two companies can't legally collaborate on the new product until after the acquisition closes.