Google was hoping that the announcement of Apple's iAd program would help with approval of the AdMob acquisition at the FTC. However that doesn't seem to be the case; Bloomberg reported on Friday that the FTC seemed poised to try and block the deal: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission staff is urging the filing of an antitrust suit challenging Google Inc.’s $750 million acquisition of AdMob Inc., according to three people familiar with the matter. It will be up to the five-member commission to decide whether to follow the staff’s advice or approve the deal. The people familiar with the matt [...]

Related Topics: Features: Analysis | Google & Yahoo Ad Deal | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Google: Mobile | Legal: General | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Top News

Last year, Google and Yahoo were denied a deal that would have left Yahoo with its own search technology, after the US Department Of Justice rattled its anti-trust saber. This year, Yahoo's pursuing a deal to sell off its tech to Microsoft. While Google CEO Eric Schmidt sees his company's former deal as "part of history," he said Google still feels an "independent" Yahoo is important. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is banking heavily on the idea that Yahoo can stay competitive in search even without its own search technology. I wondered if Schmidt agreed, given how much he knows Google spend [...]

Related Topics: Google & Yahoo Ad Deal | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal | Top News

Wired offers a fascinating, if sensational, account of the "plot" by Microsoft, its allies and its operatives to sew discontent over Google's proposed paid search deal with Yahoo: The Plot to Kill Google. The article presents Microsoft as the driving force, along with other allies, behind an effort to stop Google's further dominance in search (via the Yahoo deal) after its own failed bid for Yahoo. Here's an excerpt: [John Kelly, Microsoft's head of strategic relations,] sprang into action, activating his company's vast Washington infrastructure.Microsoft's protracted antitrust battles had [...]

Related Topics: Features: Analysis | Google & Yahoo Ad Deal | Google: Critics | Google: General | Google: Partnerships | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal

Fearing a protracted legal battle, damage to its reputation/brand and perhaps even to its stock price, Google abruptly pulled out of the proposed Yahoo paid search deal. It was revealed at the time that the US Justice Department was planning to file an action against the deal. Now in an interview in AmLaw Daily, the attorney spearheading the potential case against Google, Sanford Litvack discusses what happened. Here are some excerpts from the article/interview: "We were going to file the complaint at a certain time during the day," says Litvack, who rejoins Hogan & Hartson today. [...]

Related Topics: Google & Yahoo Ad Deal | Google: Critics | Google: Legal

Coming just 24 hours after the resignation of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is saying publicly that Redmond is "open" to a "search collaboration" with Yahoo but not a total acquisition of the Sunnyvale company. The Wall Street Journal and Seattle PI report on the remarks, made during a Microsoft shareholder meeting. Meanwhile, Valleywag says that Yahoo has lost Sean Suchter, a key search executive, to Microsoft. The search collaboration that Ballmer referred to would presumably be similar to the search (as opposed to acquisition) deal previously offered to Yahoo -- esse [...]

Related Topics: Google & Yahoo Ad Deal | Microsoft & Yahoo Search Deal