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Should Microsoft purchase Yahoo, the deal might allow the company to exert “the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the internet” that it did with personal computers, Google has said in a statement.
The statement from Google, which sees the Microsoft offer as a direct challenge, also said that such a purchase could pose threats to competition, and that it needed to be examined by policy makers.
Microsoft made an unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo Feb. 1; such a move would combine the second and third largest web search providers, writes Bloomberg.
Google’s chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, also placed a call to Yahoo’s chief, Jerry Yang, and offered his company’s help in fending off Microsoft, possibly in the form of a partnership between the two companies, The New York Times reports.
Google also made calls to allies at companies like Time Warner, which owns AOL, to ask whether they intend to pursue a rival offer and to offer help, according to sources at Google.
People close to prospective suitors like Time Warner, AT&T and Comcast say the companies have not begun work on offers.
Yahoo is considering the Microsoft option as a way to boost the value of its stock, said Yang and chairman Roy Bostock in an email to employees. It is also considering other strategic alternatives. Such alternatives could include breaking up the company or staying independent.
Microsoft is urging Yahoo to approve the takeover bid quickly, saying that it is in both parties’ interest to get the deal to the next phase, which is review by government regulators, the San Francisco Chronicle writes. Microsoft disclosed that it plans to borrow some of the money to buy the company. It would be the first time Microsoft has done so for an acquisition.
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The survey…
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