by Anton Shilov
02/04/2008 | 06:19 PM
Google, the world’s largest Internet search system, said on Monday that the possible acquisition of Yahoo!, which owns the globe’s leading portal yahoo.com, by Microsoft Corp. threatens further development of the Internet. Google believes that if Microsoft imposes the same business practices in the Internet, as it has on the software market, the openness and innovation of the Internet will be compromised.
Google claims that the possible acquisition of Yahoo! by Microsoft is more than a financial transaction, when one company takes over another. The company, which controls a large portion of Internet advertising, claims that the potential merge between the most successful Internet portal and the most influential maker of software threatens “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?” asks David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer of Google, in the official statement of the company.
Google is definitely not interested in the transaction between Microsoft and Yahoo!, as in that case it would have to rival an exceptionally powerful company with very well diversified business, with loads of resources, including the remarkable amount of talented engineers and incredible amount of capital. Moreover, not only will Google have to fight against the new powerful rival, but it will be much harder for Google to grow further in the future.
Google points out that Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals “an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts” and also “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,” Mr. Drummond.
Google gets the vast majority of revenue from selling advertisements on the pages with search results as well as on a plethora of web-sites. The company still has to create software products or online services that will be used by hundreds of millions and which are offered by Microsoft and Yahoo! Obviously, the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo poses a lot of danger not only for Google, but for many other companies as well, though, Yahoo!’s board of directors still has to accept the deal and that may not be something that it plans to do without thorough consideration and, perhaps, increase of the final price.
“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,” the statement from Google concludes.