Google to Accept Justice Department Terms on ITA Deal

After yesterday’s news stating the Justice Department was close to reaching and agreement on the Google-ITA deal, anonymous sources are once again sharing glimpses on how the negotiations are going. According to unnamed persons close to the deal quoted by Bloomberg, search giant Google agreed to have travel search and services monitored by the Justice Department in order to be allowed to complete the acquisition of airline ticketing software company ITA.

The agreement also requires Google to be subject to compulsory licensing and to create firewalls on client data. If the deal goes through, the Justice Department might take the opportunity to start a larger investigation of Google.

According to undisclosed sources, the Federal Trade Commission is also inclined to investigate the company’s search business. Yet most often the two institutions rarely investigate the same company, only one of them being given the task.

Regardless of the imposed conditions, Google seems determined to close the 700 million US dollar deal and take over ITA Software. This will put them into a privileged position in the travel industry, a reason that has caused many travel companies to show concern over the deal, including Kayak, Microsoft and Expedia. The investigations into how the competition will be affected, trying to reach a conclusion regarding the deal breaking or not anti-trust laws kept delaying the deal ever since the initial announcement in July 2010.