The Wall Street Journal reports that after the breakdown of Microsoft’s attempts to acquire Yahoo, the search company has turned to Google for an advertising partnership. But, reports the Journal, the deal that “would generate $800 million in annual revenue through improved monetization of certain types of searches” according to Yahoo “is sure to face regulatory scrutiny. The companies agreed to delay its implementation for as many as three and a half months to allow regulatory review.” It’s a shame that the two search giants are holding up such a deal just to give regulators the chance to mess it up.
A shame, but not a surprise. After all, the potentially enormously beneficial XM-Sirius deal has passed the 450 day mark with no end in sight. Even though the Justice Department approved the merger that would allow customers to hear all their favorite premium programming on one network and spur competition in broadcast radio, the FCC is needlessly waiting for Congress to weigh in. Senator Brownback (R-Kansas) is now holding up the deal. The stalling tactics apparently come from a lobbying puppet of the National Association of Broadcasters, which has a strong vested interest in keeping a great new competitor from forming.
Sounds like politics as usual is putting the brakes on many innovative new market arrangements. Let’s hope that Verizon-Alltel doesn’t face such hard times - and that growth and reorganization are not too deterred in the future - but I’m not optimistic.
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[...] Friday, I said that the XM-Sirius merger deal had “no end in sight.” But now, the Wall Street Journal reports, The staff of the Federal Communications Commission has [...]
[...] Google-Yahoo ad deal has come under a lot of scrutiny recently. As I reported earlier, in the wake of Microsoft’s failure to acquire Yahoo, the search company made a deal with [...]
[...] unclear, but it will be a shame if the mutually-beneficial agreement is held up even longer than Google and Yahoo already agreed. addthis_url = [...]
[...] unclear, but it will be a shame if the mutually-beneficial agreement is held up even longer than Google and Yahoo already agreed. addthis_url = [...]
[...] unclear, but it will be a shame if the mutually-beneficial agreement is held up even longer than Google and Yahoo already agreed. addthis_url = [...]
[...] much everyone has gotten into the Google-Yahoo thicket. First, it was the companies themselves, by intentionally leaving time for regulators to kill the non-exclusive, fairly limited advertising deal. Then, the DoJ started [...]
[...] mutually-beneficial, if they were not deterred by the XM-Sirius fiasco. (To recap: Regulators waited over a year before acting, then stuck on some price controls and other draconian conditions, then waited for the Senate to [...]