Google leaped by a major hurdle on Thursday when the U.S. Federal Trade Commission gave its blessing to its planned acquisition of DoubleClick. However, the European Commission has yet to give the nod to the megamerger.

Google announced in April 2007 its plans to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash from San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, along with JMI Equity and management.

“The FTC’s strong support sends a clear report: that acquisition poses no risk to competition and will benefit consumers,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement.

The acquisition was approved earlier that year by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and was recommended for approval by one of three Brazilian regulatory agencies. But Google won’t close the deal until the European Commission, which is still examining the transaction, grants it clearance.

The FTC’s Approval

In its opinion, the FTC explicitly rejected any concerns about competition. Google’s current business involves

the selling of text-based ads, while DoubleClick’s core business is delivering and reporting on display ads.

DoubleClick does not buy ads, sell ads, or buy or sell advertising space. It provides technology to enable advertisers and publishers to deliver ads once they have agreed to terms, and to supply advertisers and publishers statistics relating to those ads.

The FTC’s opinion noted the robust competition in online advertising, with Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick being just one of several recent transactions that underscore that strong competition.

In recent months, several major transactions in the online advertising space were announced, including Yahoo’s acquisition of Right Media, AOL’s acquisition of ADTECH AG, WPP Group’s acquisition of 24/7 Real Media, and Microsoft’s $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive and acquisition of AdECN.

“For us, privacy does not start or end with our purchase of DoubleClick,” Schmidt said. “We have been protecting our users’ privacy since our…

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