Google Cleared for Admeld Acquisition

The Justice Department has announced that it will allow Google

to acquire

.

Admeld specializes in ad optimization for digital advertisers. On

, the company says that it “provide[s] expertise and technology to help you level the playing field with buyers, sell smarter, and get back to focusing on what you do best – cultivating sustainable relationships with advertisers.” According to

, Google could spend as much as $400 million to acquire the company. Admeld CEO Michael Barrett wrote about the Justice Department's decision on

: “Today the U.S. Department of Justice cleared Admeld's acquisition by Google,” he wrote. “We're extremely happy about this decision, and our plan is to close the deal within the next few days. Thanks to the many friends, clients and partners who've helped us reach this point. “As I said when we announced the deal in June, Google is buying Admeld because they believe in our mission to serve premium publishers with the highest level of technology and expertise. Though our mailing address may change – our mission won't. In fact, over time everything you like about working with us will get even better.” Barrett added that in the coming weeks, Admeld's products will “largely remain separate” from Google's, “but we'll begin to talk about opportunities for integration and simplification.” “As Google said today in a blog post, publishers are the lifeblood of the Internet, and it's highly problematic that they have to grapple with such complexity in managing their ad inventory,” he wrote. “Helping publishers overcome this challenge is what gets us up in the morning, and we're excited to be working with Google to do it.” While Google gets a lot of attention for launching new services like

, and even more attention for attempting to

, the search engine giant's real money is in analytics and advertising. Going forward, we probably won't hear too much about Admeld. But it will be out there, earning Google billions while simultaneously changing the world of Internet advertising.