That’s a one word summary of Microsoft’s statement Sunday rebutting Google’s statement earlier in the day that said Microsoft’s $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo could raise antitrust concerns.

“The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising,” Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith said in a statement. “The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet.”

Smith argues that Google already has three-quarters of the paid search market and about two-thirds of U.S. search queries and 85 percent in Europe.

Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that Yahoo is considering some type of tie-up with Google, potentially something smaller than an all-out acquisition. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt phoned Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang on Friday to discuss how to avoid a Microsoft takeover, either by offering money or guaranteed revenue in exchange for Yahoo outsourcing its advertising to Google, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. A Google spokesman said the company had no comment on the report, and Yahoo representatives could not be reached for comment.

Source : News.com

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Google’s top lawyer has penned a letter outlining a number of concerns it sees if Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo goes through.

In the letter, “Yahoo and the future of the Internet,” Google chief legal officer David Drummond says that Microsoft’s offer “raises troubling questions” given the company’s monopolistic past.

“This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another,” Drummond said. “It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Drummond warns that Microsoft could attempt the same things it did in in the PC market, ultimately stifling new ideas. It also says a combined Microsoft-Yahoo would have an “overwhelming share” in instant messaging and Web mail.

“Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions–and consumers deserve satisfying answers,” Drummond wrote.

Google and Microsoft frequently trade complaints on how the other is a monopoly and shouldn’t be able to do whatever the other wants to do.

Perhaps, they just need a proper introduction to one another.

Source: News.com

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SEATTLE (AP) – Yahoo’s walls are awash in bright purples and yellows, while Microsoft’s campus is coated in drab neutrals. Yahoo’s co-founder holds the cutesy title of “chief Yahoo,” while Bill Gates was “chief software architect.”

Yahoo epitomizes California cool; Microsoft is still trying to get over its competition-crushing past. But the culture clash may not be as big a stumbling block to the software giant’s rich buyout bid as some critics may think.

Yahoo Inc. is still mulling over Microsoft Corp.’s offer, worth about $42 billion based on Microsoft’s closing share price Friday. Even if Yahoo’s board and shareholders approve the takeover, U.S. and European antitrust regulators must still sign off.

Google Inc. stirred that pot Sunday with a blog post that called a combined company “troubling” from an antitrust standpoint; Microsoft followed with a statement of its own that the deal would actually improve competition.

Yahoo might appear more laid back, but the two are culturally closer than one might expect. For instance, while Google Inc. foots the bill for employees’ meals, Microsoft and Yahoo both make their work forces pay in the cafeteria. And while some associate afternoon soccer and cricket matches with Yahoo’s startup ethic, Microsoft’s campus is dotted with playing fields.

And their similarities extend far beyond the perks.

“Yahoo is not the sort of strapping startup it was 10 years ago. It’s a corporate organization with its own bureaucracies,” said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Source : Biz.yahoo.com

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