Odd, the Parental Controls on Sen. Kohl’s Copy of IE Have Been Set to Block YahooGoogleFacts.com
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 3, 2008 at 8:55 AM PT
With a Department of Justice ruling on Google’s advertising partnership with Yahoo expected by late next week, a key legislator is urging further scrutiny of the deal. In a letter to the DOJ, Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, encouraged it to monitor the Google-Yahoo deal, even if the agency signs off on it. “Recognizing the nascent and fast-changing nature of this marketplace, we encourage the Department to continue to monitor the state of competition in this industry, whatever the outcome of its current investigation,” Kohl wrote. “If, over time, you determine that Google is gaining a dominant market position as a result of the Google-Yahoo agreement, then we would encourage the Justice Department to intervene to protect competition. Even should you conclude at present that this deal is not contrary to antitrust law, the Department must be sure that this deal never in the future crosses the line into an unacceptable, anti-competitive collaboration among competitors which will harm consumers and advertisers.”
This isn’t the first time Kohl has raised concerns about the long-term implications of Yahoo’s (YHOO) proposed deal with Google (GOOG). And it almost certainly won’t be the last. Back in September, he worried aloud that the partnership might reduce Yahoo to “nothing more than the newest satellite in the Google orbit.” And nothing much has changed since that time, except for Google’s increased advocacy of the deal on the new “Yahoo-Google Facts” site.
Follow John on Twitter | Follow AllThingsD on Twitter
Comments
Just think… if we had put term limits in place when the idea first came up everyone in Congress would understand the Internet by now. (Think about it).
Yahoo thinks they have a better chance of surviving with this deal in place. You would think Kohl is representing Washington State. But with campaign financing such as it is, I guess they all are.
Posted by Mac Beach at October 3rd, 2008 at 7:53 pm