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May 23, 2008
Google's Page Says Microsoft Does 'Bad Stuff'
Google co-founder Larry Page was in the nation's capital making the case for white spaces when the conversation inevitably turned to Microsoft-Yahoo. According to several news outlets, Page said, "Now, if you put 90% of communications all in one company ... that's really a big risk, especially one (Microsoft) that has a history of doing bad stuff. So if you want to have good products you need to have some degree of openness."
There are obvious problems with Page's statement. One is, why is Page acting threatened? Google more than dominates search engine queries and advertising.
Another is, if a Microsoft-Yahoo merger would produced closed products, and if good products require openness, then what in the world is Page worried about?
Besides rethinking his logic, Page may also want to do some number crunching. USA Today pointed out that comScore predicts that a Microsoft-Yahoo deal would combine to have 70% of email and instant messaging market share in the U.S.
During the same speech, Page said that a Google-Yahoo ad deal would pass the antitrust test. Together, Google and Yahoo dominate 80% of the search ad market.
Posted by Nathania Johnson at May 23, 2008 10:10 AM
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Comments
I find it hilarious that everyone gets up in arms about how Microsoft conducts business, when they conduct business the same in their own company -- being so contradicting. Apple is another company good for this, where they monopolize their products so much that it's just about impossible to use any third-party unless it's a hack. Google is just the same where they try to control everything people do on the web. But when Microsoft does business in similar manners it becomes a serious problem.
Posted by: Ant Onaf at May 26, 2008 9:43 AM
Well, I have a question about previous comment - ok, who do you prefer to be a monopolist Google, Apple or Microsoft? If people don't like Apple products they wouldn't buy it, if Google provides poor search results people wouldn't use it. It's that simple. Microsoft needs to split their business into several divisions and hunt for smart CEO to lead each division otherwise they gonna keep loosing their positions gradually or rather rapidly:-)
Posted by: Artyom Diogtev at May 28, 2008 3:26 AM
