Google Responds to Microsoft's Takeover Bid for Yahoo

Google's top lawyer spoke out on the unsolicited Microsoft Bid for Yahoo! recently, mainly expressing concern for what this combination will do to the future of the Internet. He posted an entry in the official Google blog, stating: "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."

David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer of Google went on to ask this important question, "Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?" He is, of course, referring to the long battle with Justice that Microsoft had over the alleged illegal use of its operating system to stifle competition. That case ended with a 2002 settlement that Microsoft would abandon some of it's past practices.

His concern was not so much for web search competition, than for combined total traffic from messaging and email accounts of the Microsoft and Yahoo combination. He states, " 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." Drummond went on to ask, "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?"