Antitrust

About this time a decade ago, Google CEO Eric Schmidt was praying that the U.S. Justice Department would file an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft.

"I've competed against Microsoft for years, but I never quite appreciated how big Microsoft has become, not just as a company, but as a brand and as part of the national consciousness," Schmidt said in 1998, four months before the suit was filed. "It's the products, the Microsoft marketing juggernaut, Bill Gates's wealth, all those magazine cover stories. It's everything."

That was when Schmidt was the chief … Read more

The U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly hired a well-known antitrust litigator for a possible court challenge to a planned advertising deal between Google and Yahoo.

Former Walt Disney Co. Vice Chairman Sandy Litvack has been hired to head any legal challenge to the ad deal, according to an article published Monday by Dow Jones News Service.

It was not clear, the article said, whether any eventual lawsuit would target only the Google-Yahoo deal--or represent a broader assault on the Mountain View, Calif.-based company's business practices. Lawyers have been reportedly deposing witnesses and subpoenaing documents to support … Read more

Yahoo defended its planned advertising deal with Google at a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday, while Microsoft assailed it as anticompetitive and perhaps even "illegal."

The hearing before an antitrust panel replayed arguments that the three companies have made before: Microsoft is trying to raise antitrust objections as a way to derail the deal, and the two Silicon Valley firms say it's perfectly fine and a boon to competition.

One reason Microsoft is so irked is that the ad deal amounts to a poison pill that would raise the price of buying Yahoo by as much … Read more

The U.S. Senate is holding a hearing Tuesday on the antitrust implications of the Google-Yahoo ad deal, and the two companies, along with Microsoft, are testifying. You should expect sober, selfless discussions conducted with the public's best interests in mind.

Or not. In reality, Microsoft will offer fanciful claims about the alleged detrimental impact of a Google-Yahoo partnership, just as Google offered fanciful claims a few months ago about the alleged detrimental impact of a Microsoft-Yahoo combination.

According to his prepared testimony, Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith will call the Google-Yahoo deal possibly "illegal under the antitrust … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--There is something unusual, and perhaps a little worrisome, in the arguments a band of special-interest groups has invoked against Google's purchase of the DoubleClick advertising firm.

The arguments can be found in a series of three letters (PDF) sent to the Federal Trade Commission starting in April. The letters ask, in part, that the FTC "use its authority to review mergers to halt Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick."

It's true, of course, that the FTC shares responsibility for reviewing mergers with the Department of Justice. What's odd is the letters … Read more

An odd thing happened in Washington this week. A dozen Republicans demanded a public hearing into Google's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick because, they claim, "the privacy implications of such a merger are enormous."

This demand came in a letter from those politicians (PDF), including Rep. Dennis Hastert, to their Democratic counterparts, who now have the power to decide whether to haul Google in for questioning.

What's odd is that these are the same Republicans who have spent their political careers extolling the virtues of mergers when telecommunications giants are vying to acquire one … Read more