Google held its Zeitgeist Conference yesterday, and during that
conference, CEO Eric Schmidt, and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey
Brin held a media roundtable at which they discussed a variety of
Google's recent endeavors. Among the topics of course, was the
proposed Google-Yahoo! advertising deal, which is currently being
scrutinized by the U.S. Department of Justice.
This has been well covered in the media recently, particularly since
Schmidt announced that Google and Yahoo! would be going forward with
the deal in October rather than wait for the DoJ's investigation.
Schmidt thinks that rival Microsoft is largely to blame for the
amount of controversy the deal has attracted. "I am quite sure that
Microsoft is helping everyone get upset about things," he said.
Microsoft is no doubt bitter about the whole thing, particularly
since its own buyout of Yahoo! fell through, but Microsoft can't
take all the blame itself. According to the LA Times, Schmidt
acknowledged that Google didn't do a good enough job of explaining
the deal. This didn't do much to pour water on the flames.
Schmidt also acknowledged that Google pretty much expected the
situation they are in. "We anticipated these objections," he said.
"This is roughly where we expected to be." He implied that Google
is well aware of U.S. antitrust regulations, and said that the
company is "playing by the rules." He pointed out how both Google
and Yahoo! had invested so much time into the deal, and that they
had no intentions of delaying it any further.
Of course that could change if the DoJ finds something it doesn't
like. Then there's the fact the World Association of Newspapers
has called upon the European Commission and the Competition Bureau
of Canada to block the deal as well.
Nobody told Schmidt the deal was going to be easy. Luckily for him,
he never thought it would be.
conference, CEO Eric Schmidt, and co-founders Larry Page and Sergey
Brin held a media roundtable at which they discussed a variety of
Google's recent endeavors. Among the topics of course, was the
proposed Google-Yahoo! advertising deal, which is currently being
scrutinized by the U.S. Department of Justice.
This has been well covered in the media recently, particularly since
Schmidt announced that Google and Yahoo! would be going forward with
the deal in October rather than wait for the DoJ's investigation.
Schmidt thinks that rival Microsoft is largely to blame for the
amount of controversy the deal has attracted. "I am quite sure that
Microsoft is helping everyone get upset about things," he said.
Microsoft is no doubt bitter about the whole thing, particularly
since its own buyout of Yahoo! fell through, but Microsoft can't
take all the blame itself. According to the LA Times, Schmidt
acknowledged that Google didn't do a good enough job of explaining
the deal. This didn't do much to pour water on the flames.
Schmidt also acknowledged that Google pretty much expected the
situation they are in. "We anticipated these objections," he said.
"This is roughly where we expected to be." He implied that Google
is well aware of U.S. antitrust regulations, and said that the
company is "playing by the rules." He pointed out how both Google
and Yahoo! had invested so much time into the deal, and that they
had no intentions of delaying it any further.
Of course that could change if the DoJ finds something it doesn't
like. Then there's the fact the World Association of Newspapers
has called upon the European Commission and the Competition Bureau
of Canada to block the deal as well.
Nobody told Schmidt the deal was going to be easy. Luckily for him,
he never thought it would be.
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