Google on Yahoo! And Microsoft hostile bid

by: admin Monday, February 4th, 2008

Rating: hmmm

Now, when I first read Google’s response to Yahoo! And Google bid posted by David Drummond SVP and Chief Legal Officer – I wasn’t sure what to think.

The push on the word hostile is very clever and strategic. There is no mention of the fact that Yahoo! Was in trouble and was about to get rid of 1000 jobs and in this light Microsoft might actually be helping the company?

On top of that I sense from this that any IM company is now squarely on Google’s hitlist as it is nervous about the MSN and Yahoo Messenger link.

Yahoo! and the future of the Internet
2/03/2008 11:45:00 AM
Posted by David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer

The openness of the Internet is what made Google — and Yahoo! — possible. A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It’s what makes the Internet such an exciting place.

So Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies — and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.

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.

This hostile bid was announced on Friday, so there is plenty of time for these questions to be thoroughly addressed. We take Internet openness, choice and innovation seriously. They are the core of our culture. 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.

(Source: http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Google_s_Official_Statement_on_the_Microsoft_Bid_for_Yahoo)