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Sunday morning, David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, posted a blog post on the Google Blog discussing the Microsoft bid to purchase Yahoo! Below are snippets from the post and you can read the full version here.
Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft — despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses — to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions — and consumers deserve satisfying answers.
Microsoft Purchase of Yahoo Won’t Happen As Predicted
Microsoft’s statement that it expects to have regulatory approval by the
middle of the year is gamesmanship. And, though the EU is uneasy about Google,
creating a bigger Microsoft monolith really wouldn’t be EU’s first choice for
dealing with this concern. Expect a much longer approval process, which is
a greater risk to this deal than currently acknowledged.