Taboola-Outbrain merger faces
Phase II investigation
The Competition and Markets
Authority (CMA) has launched a Phase II review into the merger of digital advertising
platform operators Taboola and Outbrain.
The probe coincides with CMA recommendations
on how to promote competition in the sector following its separate market study.
The CMA has stated that the
merging parties did not offer remedies to address the concerns it had raised
about the impact on competition in the UK online advertising sector.
Taboola and Outbrain employ
algorithms to display personalised recommended content in publishers’ websites
and operate on a pay-per-click basis. The
publishers receive a share of revenue each time a user clicks on an ad.
Taboola has claimed that the
company offers “a more robust competitor to Facebook and Google”. The CMA finds that the merged entity would
control 80 per cent of the content-recommendation market.
The CMA has 24 weeks until 24
December 2020 to issue its final decision on whether to approve or prohibit the
merger.
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