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by Kevin Maney, Blogger, Tech Observer, Portfolio.com
Reports, rumors and innuendos are bouncing around the Web that Google may not want to cut an advertising deal with Yahoo after all. This before there is actually substantiation that Google and Yahoo are crafting an advertising deal, which was something of a rumor and innuendo in the first place, allegedly planted to let Microsoft know that Yahoo had options.
Google is allegedly worried about ticking off Washington officials who might think that if Google is playing ball with Yahoo, Google has become an antitrust violator that must be terminated. As if Google isn’t already close to monopoly power in search. It gets 67% of all searches, and that share keeps growing. Google worrying that a Yahoo deal will push it over the brink in antitrust is like Kim Jong-il worrying that if he puts on a party hat he’ll be considered crazy.
Can Microsoft really put together the concepts “interoperability” and “principles?” That’s the question to ask following Thursday’s announcement about Microsoft’s so-called new “interoperability principles.” For quick clarification: The principles aren’t really new–the European Union’s Competition Commission required the principles’ framework, in response to Microsoft’s March 2004 adverse antitrust ruling. The timing also is suspicious, given the potential public-relations bang Microsoft could get about a week before a key vote will determine whether or not ISO adopts OOXML (Open Office XML) as a standard.
After years of rumors, it finally happened. On Friday, Microsoft made its buyout offer for Yahoo. But while that was expected to happen, as both companies have had trouble catching online advertising juggernaut Google, what wasn’t so expected was that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer would go all Murdoch on Yahoo with a hostile bid at a 62% premium over Yahoo’s stock price. But unlike Rupert Murdoch’s hostile bid for Dow Jones, Ballmer doesn’t have to contend with family ownership or strange stock structures.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the BIGGEST BUYOUT IN INTERNET HISTORY and only consider the business aspects, the antitrust problems, the privacy concerns, Google’s crocodile tears over Microsoft’s unchecked power, and so on. But what about the people who use Yahoo’s various online services, or for that matter, Microsoft’s? What will happen to them in a merger, and how might their experience change?
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