Friday, April 8, 2011

Google (GOOG) Cleared for ITA Deal

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) won a big victory today as it has been cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice to acquire flight-data company ITA Software Inc.

There were several concessions the DoJ extracted from Google in order for the deal to be allowed to go forward.

Google must continue to license ITA's software to airline-ticket search and booking sites, and it is required to continue to fund research and development of that software at levels that are similar to ITA's investments in past years.

The settlement also requires that Google further develop and offer ITA's next-generation software to travel websites.

Google also must implement internal firewalls that prevent the unauthorized use of sensitive information gathered from ITA's customers.

ITA is being acquired for $700 million by Google.

Google was trading at $581.68, gaining $1.68, or 0.29 percent, as of 2:18 PM EDT.

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