Microsoft to challenge Google-Yahoo Japan deal

So guess what Microsoft thinks of Yahoo Japan's decision to swap it out for Google as main search partner?

Yeah, not too happy about it. And it's going to do all that it can to thwart the deal. "We plan to present evidence to the Japanese FTC explaining why we believe that this deal is substantially more harmful to competition than Google's deal with Yahoo in 2008 that the DOJ found to be illegal," the company said in a statement issued Friday afternoon.

(Credit: All Things Digital)

Not all that surprising given the situation and Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith's lambasting of the deal last week. "This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google's deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal," he said. "The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising. This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid. It means there will be no search competition in Japan and that Google will end up controlling all personal search information for all Japanese consumers and businesses."

Perhaps, but does that even matter since the Japan Fair Trade Commission has already publicly blessed the deal? Hard to imagine the JFTC backing away from that endorsement without losing face.

Story Copyright (c) 2010 AllThingsD. All rights reserved.

[askermana271275]

Stupid microsoft trying to ruin everything thats better than you.

[trouble001]

Really? Serious? Have you even tried Bing? It is actually superior.

[askermana271275]

@trouble001

Just because its prettier doesn't make it better. Google returns better results and has more services such as street view on maps.

[Absolution2009]

@trouble001: BING looks nice and is decent search provider but for phones and overall ease speed etc. Google is way superior. BING did drastically improve and it is indeed a really good improvement over msn.com, however, it's definitely not Google.

[Mr. Dee]

Its all about fair competition, I am sure if it was Microsoft and Google complained, you would want to see things in Googles favor. Stop being so annoying, I bet you are some Google employee using Mac OS X.

[OneMoreThing112]

@askermana272343895734895

Best comment!

Although, now we get to choose. We have MS with crap on a stick search, and we have good ol' Google. Stealing information from thousands of unaware Japanese...

Good luck with that.

[Random_Walk]

Wow - so Microsoft is going to try to use US caselaw, and un-related caselaw at that... to convince a Japanese government bureaucracy that Yahoo Japan, with a wildly different marketshare dynamic, to toe the line and give Microsoft money like the rest of Yahoo?

Anyone else smell the desperation coming out of Microsoft here?

[Seaspray0]

Irony is more like it since others have used US case law against microsoft in the same manner.

[Random_Walk]

Indeed! There's been cases where US caselaw had been argued to defend Microsoft as well.

I remember when the EU was about to fine Microsoft a metric ton of money... the fanboys were screaming to the rafters about how it was against this or that US legal concept or precedent. t'was funny to watch.

That said though, there's a huge diff between uninformed forum/comment posters doing it, and, err, the corporation itself doing it. One would think that Microsoft hired competent legal staff, yanno?

[Linker11]

The last thing i want is to be over run by google

[Linker11]

The last thing i want is google to over run us

[AndroidFTW]

I like MSFT...I don`t want anyone having a monopoly.

[Yelonde]

Microsoft talking about stopping monopolies, and lack of competition?

Yea, about that . . .

[Random_Walk]

It's only bad when they don't have the upper hand.

It's pretty typical of any corporation... government is always good when it helps their bottom line, but always bad when it requires them to behave.