Google is apparently going to disregard the investigation into any antitrust practices, and move forward in its advertising deal with Yahoo! in October, unless the government stops them.
Eric Schmidt appeared on Bloomberg TV today in an interview from which he is quoted as saying, “We are in the process of talking to the government. They’ve not indicated one way or the other how they’re dealing with us.”
In a bold statement back in June, Google said it would give the Justice Department three and a half months to scrutinize the deal before they moved forward. Now Google intends to make good on that statement and go forward with or without the consent of the department (unless of course they are made to stop).
“Ultimately we have confidence that they’ll be able to conduct their review within that time period and allow us to move forward.” a Google spokesperson told Bloomberg.
The deal itself would see Yahoo showing Google AdWords ads throughout the American and Canadian versions of its search results. The deal of course came just after the Microsoft-Yahoo heartbreaker. Some people thought Google and Yahoo! should’ve reached a similar deal a long time ago, but instead, Yahoo! went on with it’s own Panama platform. Yahoo eventually acknowledged the fact that there was much more money to be made with Google, and decided to submit to the search advertising powerhouse.
Just how much of a powerhouse it becomes is still up to the government though, no matter what Google says it’s going to do in October. Schmidt’s comments today will probably at least give the Justice Department a kick in the pants to get its butt in gear with this investigation, so everyone can find out at least where all the card lie.
