Microsoft's Yahoo bid raises more congressional eyebrows

Here we go again.

Not content to be outdone by a rival committee, which promptly announced a February 8 hearing into the antitrust implications of Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to swallow up Yahoo, another U.S. House of Representatives committee said it is planning to hold a hearing sometime this spring. The subject of the hearing will be the "tough competition and consumer privacy issues that have been and will be raised" by the potential deal. Yahoo, for the record, has not accepted Microsoft's offer.

"The recent announcement by Microsoft demonstrates that consolidation of companies in the Internet advertising world will continue, irrespective of whether this specific deal materializes," Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said in a statement Tuesday.

Rush, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce consumer protection subcommittee, threatened to have hearings on the Google-DoubleClick merger last year but never followed through. That deal, of course, has already received the green light from U.S. regulators, but Rush and committee ranking member Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said concerns remain about the privacy implications raised by consolidation of online search and advertising companies.

In addition to the public hearing, whose date has not yet been set, the committee chairmen said they would also be requesting "a confidential briefing from the appropriate government regulators."

Last fall, a Senate antitrust panel held a hearing on the Google-DoubleClick deal, though few members actually bothered to show up to ask questions. The chairman of that committee, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), has said he is considering scheduling a hearing on the Microsoft-Yahoo situation if Yahoo opts to take the buyout invite.

[scdecade]

More gov't waste

Well, at least they're able to take a break from the important work of making baseball safe from steroids... What about the war, the economy, the money supply, the deficiet, entitlements, and the national debt? When are they going to get around to coming up with solutions to those things?

[MMC Racing]

that's an easy one..

The Google lobbiest don't care about those topics...

[The_Decider]

This is a legitimate congressional issue

nt

[Penguinisto]

Nuke them from orbit.

It's the only way to be sure.

:)

/P

[fred dunn]

How about working on the budget? Prioritize

I can see our representatives wanting to ensure that large businesses do not get out of control (unless they send a lobbyist with vacation plans) but during this time of constant turmoil and recession they should be working on getting the country straight then worry about whatever else.
This is just another case of lobbyists buying away your representative's time and effort for their special cause and shorting their own constituency.

Government...Get your priorities in order. If any American citizen ran their household like you do the country we would be homeless or in prison.

[tatepc]

the only eyebrows its raising... is....

congress persons who own alot of google shares..

im sure..

lol

[chris_d]

Don't assume

Don't assume that just because Microsoft buys Yahoo they will
be able to compete with Google. Microsoft has been throwing
billions of $ at their search, trying to make it competitive with
Google, and they're not doing well. Yahoo isn't doing that well
either. Integrating their efforts would be extremely difficult and
would likely only put them further behind. The rest of
Microsoft's web presence is pretty crappy too, especially when
some of it still demands you use windows and internet explorer.

As a user of several Yahoo services, I don't like this deal because
I'm sure Microsoft will find a way to screw them up. Hotmail has
sucked since Microsoft bought it and the new "Kahuna" Hotmail
isn't much better. I only use that account now for things where I
expect to get spammed.

I think Google may actually widen its lead under this new deal,
but Yahoo users will get screwed over. That's why I don't like it.