When asked about the potential for an antitrust challenge Schmidt told the
New York Times: “We would anticipate structuring a deal to address antitrust
concerns.”
The big question isn’t really whether a deal between Yahoo and Google is
anticompetitive. Nope, the real question is whether regulators are
fearful that Google has become too dominant, when it comes to the
search engine industry.
After all, if were merely a case of "is this specific deal anticompetitive"
Google could point to similar deals in other industries. As the NYT notes…
The printer industry, they say, is a perfect example. Canon supplies printer
engines to about 80 percent of the laser printer market, including its rival
Hewlett-Packard. They point to many others, including Whirlpool’s making
appliances for Sears, AT&T’s licensing its mobile network to Virgin Atlantic
and other small carriers, Toyota’s selling hybrid engines to General Motors and
Microsoft’s tailoring its Office software for Apple computers.
Viewed that way, an advertising partnership between Google and Yahoo is not a
threat. Both companies retain their brand and ownership, with searchers free to
make a choice as to which search engine to use.
However, there’s a lot of questions being raised about Google’s dominance.
Questions that Microsoft is all too familiar
not a shock the deal never went through, the corporate cultures were and are so far apart.
Very interesting subject!
If this deal goes through why would anyone sign up to Yahoo Search Marketing if they can get their ads on Yahoo through AdWords.
No wonder this deal is under scrutiny!