After eight months of review for possible antitrust violations, the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday approved Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of Internet ad server DoubleClick.

But the European Commission has yet to sign off on the deal.

In a 4-1 vote to close its investigation of the transaction, the FTC wrote in its majority statement:

After carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to substantially lessen competition.

Besides being the most popular search engine, Google already has a lock on the Internet text ad market with its AdWords and AdSense programs while DoubleClick is the most important player in the third party banner ad server market.

Here’s how we see the Google-DoubleClick deal: 

1. We think the DoubleClick acquisition will make Google a too powerful influence on the overall Internet advertising market to the detriment of both content publishers and advertisers, big and small. Size matters, as all those junk e-mails tell us everyday. Also, arrogance Continue Reading…

Just read an interesting news item in DNA - Indians are forking out as much as Rs 1 crore ($250,000) to Shah Rukh Khan and other Bollywood celebrities to sing/dance at their functions and shake hands with their guests.

Here’s an excerpt from the DNA piece:

Shah Rukh Khan may not agree to do a jig, but he might happily be a guest for Rs.10 million. Bollywood actors and item girls like Celina Jaitley, Malaika Arora Khan, Dia Mirza, Isha Koppikar and Rakhi Sawant charge nearly Rs.1 million each to perform.

Koena Mitra, Shefali Zariwala, Priti Jhagtiani, Payal Rohtagi, Neha Kakkar, Sanobar and Mandira Bedi charge between Rs.500,000-Rs.700,000 to perform at marriage ceremonies.

The schedule includes two high-voltage dance performances of eight-and-a-half minutes each.

Many summers ago, before we joined the ranks of the great Indian disapora, we thought the Americans were a smart lot compared to our desis. After spending a considerable part of our earthly existence here, we realized our folly and concluded that folks here were not as smart as our folks back home (India).

But now watching the antics of our folks back in the ole country, we feel the dodo is not only not extinct but ubiquitous.

It seems crass stupidity and crass vulgarity have no geographical barriers.

After being traumatized recently by the hideously awful Tamil film Billa, we were desperately in need of some relief.

Fortunately, we stumbled upon a fine Argentine film Cautiva (2003) from our long neglected Netflix trove.

Set in Argentina of the early 1990s after the dirty deeds of the last military dictatorship were exposed, this Spanish film is the story of a teenage girl who one day discovers that her parents are not her biological parents after a court magistrate informs her about the circumstances of her birth and her real parents.

If Spanish is all Greek to you, have no fear because Cautiva comes with English sub-titles. 

As those who still retain the quaint habit of reading know, the military dictatorship of 1976-1983 marked a dark era in Argentina when tens of thousands of people “disappeared” never to be seen again. Most were tortured and killed by the military and buried in unmarked graves.

One of the fine books highlighting this dark watershed in Argentine history is Jacobo Timerman’s Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number.

As Cautiva makes poignantly clear, sometimes the young babies of those who “disappeared” were passed on to childless couples close to the military regime.

Besides crisp direction by Gaston Birben (his first film as director) and the gripping narrative, Cautiva also delights us with an amazing performance by Barbara Lombardo as the young 15/16- year-old girl Cristina/Sofia abruptly taken from her Catholic convent school one day to live with a grandmother she’s never known before.

While it’s Barbara Lombardo who ably carries this movie on her young shoulders, she is well supported by Mercedes Funes, who plays Angelica (the girl who helps Cristina uncover the details behind her parents’ disappearance), the late Susana Campos (who plays Cristina’s grandmother Elisa) and others.

Cautiva is a message to pusillanimous Indian moviemakers that there is a world out there beyond love if only they cared to look.

Sadly, most Indian movies, whether Bollywood, Kollywood or Continue Reading…