Google and Yahoo’s search deal which will commence sometime in October has received yet again, another opposition. This time it’s from the Association of National Advertisers who sent a letter to the head of the antitrust division of the U.S. Dept. of Justice. Part of the letter was published by News.com and it says:
The letter, authorized by the ANA board, notes that a Google-Yahoo partnership will control 90 percent of search advertising inventory and states ANA’s concerns that the partnership will likely diminish competition, increase concentration of market power, limit choices currently available and potentially raise prices to advertisers for high quality, affordable search and advertising
For those who may not be aware like me, ANA is composed of around 400 Fortune-rated companies. The group came out with the statement after considering the independent analysis of its members and in-person discussion with their member companies, which all points to a strong disagreement with the proposed search deal.Reacting to the ANA’s opposition, Yahoo published a statement saying:
We are disappointed with the ANA Board’s position regarding Yahoo!’s non-exclusive search marketing agreement with Google. Yahoo! remains steadfast in its belief that this deal–in which prices are determined by advertiser demand-driven auctions, and not by collaboration between Yahoo! and Google–will strengthen Yahoo!’s competitive position in online advertising and will help to drive a more robust, higher quality Yahoo! marketplace for our advertisers.
Although statements like this, opposing the Google-Yahoo search deal don’t really bear a weight with the Federal legislators’ investigation and views of the said search deal, it may still somehow affect its outcome. But in the end, it’s still the factual and legal merit of the Google-Yahoo search deal which will prevail. And trust the legislators to see this even without those statements coming from various advertising groups.
