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View Full Version : [July,16] Yahoo takes defense of Google ad deal to Capitol Hill



Aurion
16.07.08, 19:04
Yahoo defended its planned advertising deal with Google at a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday, while Microsoft assailed it as anticompetitive and perhaps even "illegal."

The hearing before an antitrust panel replayed arguments that the three companies have made before: Microsoft is trying to raise antitrust objections as a way to derail the deal, and the two Silicon Valley firms say it's perfectly fine and a boon to competition.

One reason Microsoft is so irked is that the ad deal amounts to a poison pill that would raise the price of buying Yahoo by as much as $250 million. That's the so-called termination fee that Yahoo would owe Google if an acquisition ended the ad relationship, though it can be reduced by 50 percent of the revenue Google earned. A lawsuit (PDF) against Yahoo claims that "Microsoft could not swallow a Google-encumbered Yahoo due to antitrust implications" and undoing it would prove a formidable barrier to an acquisition.

Senators' remarks on Tuesday seemed mixed, with little to no outright condemnation of Yahoo and Google's new friendliness, but little enthusiasm for it either. (The Justice Department, not the Senate, is reviewing the deal on antitrust grounds before it goes into effect; Congress has no formal role to play.)

Source :

Yahoo takes defense of Google ad deal to Capitol Hill | The Iconoclast - politics, law, and technology - CNET News.com (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9992230-38.html?tag=nefd.top)