Antitrust-Conscious Microhoo!

July 30, 2009

The recent announcement of a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo! preceded letters to advertisers and ad agencies by both company's extolling the virtues of the deal struck. Foremost among the selling points being offered by the two tech giants is that the deal will supposedly encourage competition in the search engine market.

Under the deal, Microsoft's technology will power Yahoo!'s search pages and related advertising. This combines the second and third most popular search engines in the American market. Google presently dominates the market, attracting approximately two-thirds of American users.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee on Antitrust, said that the deal combined "industry giants and direct competitors in Internet advertising and search markets," and thus deserves "careful scrutiny."

Michael Callahan, general counsel for Yahoo! stated the companies' belief that the deal is "really the only way to ensure" that there is "going to be a competitive long-term alternative to Google in paid search."

Anti-pro

All of them are trying to keep up with the big G. It's odd how in all industries, companies start out evenly and there are many of them until eventually conglomerates start to emerge and everything seems starts to seem more like an oligopoly. Personally though, I'm fine with the potential merger as long as someone can figure out how I can post to my Facebook without getting fired.

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