The primary decision holding the cards in terms of the merger's approval is the US Federal Trade Commission. It appears that Deborah Platt Majoras, the FTC chairwoman, is married to John M. Majoras, who happens to be a partner at the Jones Day law firm that happens to have the specialty of ... you guessed it ... anti-trust. One of Jones Day law firm's clients? Well, that would be DoubleClick.
As if that weren't fishy enough, Deborah Majoras herself was a partner at the firm before leaving to take the FTC position.
"The chairman is reviewing the petition with the chief ethics officer," Claudia Bourne Farrell, an FTC spokeswoman, said. "We only learned yesterday that Jones Day is representing DoubleClick before the European Commission, not the Federal Trade Commission. Jones Day has not appeared before the FTC in this matter."
CDD and EPIC are both calling for Majoras to recuse herself, and rebuking her for not disclosing this information from "Day One."
The end result? The FTC decision on the acquisition by Google of DoubleClick will not come next week, as had been previously scheduled.
[via CBS5 San Francisco]