After staying quiet during the frenzy of Microsoft's offer to purchase Yahoo on Friday for US$44.6-billion, Google has finally responded via a statement on its official blog.
While I encourage you to read the whole statement, the following from Google senior vice-president David Drummond pretty much sums up how Google views what could be a very strong competitor in the online advertising space:
"Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.""Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets."
While it is certain that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger will have an impact on the Internet, it is still unclear to how serious that impact will be. It is also encouraging to see Google add its voice to the debate and question what a Web controlled by Microsoft could look like. In the end, however, it is up to the Internet's denizens and their voices to help shape the future of the online world.
David George-Cosh
While I encourage you to read the whole statement, the following from Google senior vice-president David Drummond pretty much sums up how Google views what could be a very strong competitor in the online advertising space:
"Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.""Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets."
While it is certain that a Microsoft-Yahoo merger will have an impact on the Internet, it is still unclear to how serious that impact will be. It is also encouraging to see Google add its voice to the debate and question what a Web controlled by Microsoft could look like. In the end, however, it is up to the Internet's denizens and their voices to help shape the future of the online world.
David George-Cosh
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