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"This morning, Google\u2019s Senior VP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, published a short post on the company\u2019s official blog. It is a response to last week\u2019s motion by Microsoft for ownership of Yahoo!. Readers will find the words troubling, hostile, illegal, and monopoly tossed into the mix.\nJust some spicy flavoring? Probably not. My immediate impression is that this particular Google executive is sort of concerned (though certainly not blowing his whistle) about the implications of a Microsoft-Yahoo! merger. His primary focus is of the possibility of Internet openness and innovation to be compromised and corrupted (my words, not his), if Microsoft is to succeed in its goal.\nHe briefly recalls Microsoft\u2019s history of seeking monopolization of various sectors of the software industry, as well as its \u201Clegacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses\u201D and warns of an attempt by the Windows-maker to \u201Cexert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC.\u201D He goes on to state that a move to join Microsoft and Yahoo! would result in an \u201Coverwhelming share of instant messaging and Web mail accounts\u201D and would constitute a clear majority of Internet portal traffic, effectively opening the possibility to \u201Climit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors\u2019 email, IM, and Web-based services.\u201D\nIf I\u2019m to be frank here, I take Drummond\u2019s post to be a device meant to stir thoughts of controversy and malign intentions. It\u2019s not quite a gleaming red flag asking for government regulators around the world to halt the acquisition attempt. But it\u2019s halfway there.\nWhat needs to be explained more thoroughly in light of Friday\u2019s news is that there is a good deal of difference between the technology marketplace of the past and the one we live with today. Whereas Microsoft clearly had a firm grip on the localized desktop software business in the \u201890s (and which continues to this very moment), the Internet is a much more open arena. As an economic platform, it is more flat than anything to come before. And Microsoft could not change that. What\u2019d done is done. Thus I find any anti-trust concerns arising in response to \u201CMicroshoo!\u201D largely unsubstantiated."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/02/03/google-senior-vp-responds-to-microshoo/>