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Google Publishes Whiplash Reaction to Microsoft/Yahoo Bid, Microsoft Snaps Back


Your move, Jerry.

The Googleblog has published insights on Microsoft's unsolicited bid for Yahoo, which was announced Friday.

"The openness of the Internet is what made Google — and Yahoo! — possible," wrote SVP David Drummond of corporate development at Google.

"Microsoft's hostile bid […] is about more than simply a financial transaction. […] It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."

The blog goes on to assert Microsoft exerted inappropriate and illegal influence over the PC market, behavior which may be duplicated in its attempts to monopolize the internet.

"Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies — and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets," said Google.

The company urges the bid be thoroughly studied. "We believe that the interests of Internet users come first — and should come first — as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and alternatives explored," Drummond concluded.

Read Google's blog entry, titled "Yahoo! and the future of the Internet."

Google's reflections on how the Microsoft/Yahoo merger may affect the internet mirror concerns Microsoft and other companies posed when Google announced its acquisition of DoubleClick early last year. The FTC recently approved the merger, but the European Commission has yet to give its blessing.

As of December, over 58 percent of searches took place on Google — nearly twice the combined search share of Yahoo and Microsoft together.

Microsoft responded to the Googleblog late Sunday. General counsel Brad Smith of Microsoft wrote:

Google has amassed about 75 percent of paid search revenues worldwide and its share continues to grow. According to published reports, Google currently has more than 65 percent search query share in the U.S. and more than 85 percent in Europe. Microsoft and Yahoo! on the other hand have roughly 30 percent combined in the U.S. and approximately 10 percent combined in Europe.

Microsoft is committed to openness, innovation, and the protection of privacy on the Internet. We believe that the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! will advance these goals.

Microsoft's bid for Yahoo valued the company at $44.6 billion, resulting in a 50 percent leap in Yahoo's stock price on Friday morning.

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