Deals

Deals

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
antitrust

Companies:
google, justice department, yahoo



Yahoo And Google Revise Deal To Try To Win Antitrust Approval

from the bargaining dept

With Yahoo and Google in the midst of a vast negotiation with the Justice Department to try to avoid an antitrust lawsuit over their proposed ad deal -- even to the point of Google threatening to back out entirely -- it shouldn't come as a surprise that they're going to propose various modifications to the deal.

The news today is leaking that the two companies are proposing a greatly scaled back version of the deal to see if it passes Justice Department muster. In this case, the deal would be shortened from 10 years to just two, and would limit how much revenue it could represent to Yahoo while also allowing any advertiser to opt out of the deal. We're still waiting for a clear explanation of how this deal will actually negatively impact consumers, but some people still insist it will. For those who believe so, let's ask a simple question: how is this any worse than Yahoo disappearing from the marketplace? Because if the company doesn't do something soon that may be what we're looking at.

6 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

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  1. Nov 3rd, 2008 @ 8:22pm
    by orlin

    "We're still waiting for a clear explanation of how this deal will actually negatively impact consumers"

    I was thinking about this for quite a while. The basic idea is that the lack of competition brings alot of problems. Indeed, this is something we can agree upon. Even though for now the Google ad-system is based upon the market, this might change once the merge is complete. After all 90% share of something is alot of power and abusing it is just one step away.

    I should agree, that if Yahoo is to go bancrupt, then even a greater problem will arise. A merger might not be the best step, yet in this case it might be (is) the only possible one.

    Cheers,
    Orlin

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. Nov 3rd, 2008 @ 8:31pm

    Really

    by No Six Pack

    Is google the only way to advertise on the internet ?

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Nov 3rd, 2008 @ 8:59pm

    Hmmm...

    by Keill Randor

    Is it time to start transferring my email away from yahoo?

    (Have two old, (and therefore well connected and used), email addresses with yahoo...).

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Nov 3rd, 2008 @ 8:59pm

    Re: Really

    by Anonymous Coward

    pretty much anymore

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Nov 3rd, 2008 @ 9:16pm

    Re: Really

    by Willton

    Google has essentially become the internet.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Nov 4th, 2008 @ 5:30am

    Re: Re: Really

    by No six Pack

    Oh please .... where did I put my boots.
    You really need to get out more.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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