MicroHoo Search Deal Faces DOJ Scrutiny, CEO Bartz Would Have Let MSFT Buy All Of Yahoo

Bloomberg is reporting this morning that the US Department of Justice has decided to look more closely at the MicroHoo search deal. Microsoft and Yahoo are to provide more information on their “ad pricing and product plans, a person familiar with the matter said.” This is not a surprise.

The companies must convince regulators that the deal will not harm competition or adversely affect SEM pricing. They must also do a similar dance in Europe, where a parallel process will take place. In the end, however, it’s likely the deal will be approved given broad US and EU concerns about Google’s market position and this deal as a possible counterweight to that dominance.

And in a CNBC interview Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz says she would have accepted the Microsoft takeover offer that then CEO Jerry Yang and the Yahoo board rejected. (That would have had a tougher time with regulators than the search-only deal now before them.) Bartz also asserted that Yahoo was still in the search business by controlling the search experience around Bing results.

Bartz also discussed many other aspects of Yahoo’s strategy and value to users. You can see the full interview below.