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Google Was 3 Hours Away From DOJ Antitrust Charges

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the not-evil-we-swear dept.

turnkeylinux writes "Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. called off their joint advertising agreement just three hours before the Department of Justice planned to file antitrust charges to block the pact, according to the lawyer who would have been lead counsel for the government. 'We were going to file the complaint at a certain time during the day,' says Litvack, who rejoins Hogan & Hartson today. 'We told them we were going to file the complaint at that time of day. Three hours before, they told us they were abandoning the agreement.'"

6 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Microsoft by Enderandrew · · Score: 3, Informative

    And it isn't like Microsoft doesn't have a dog in the search business.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  2. Re:What's his name by snspdaarf · · Score: 3, Informative

    I believe the douche you are looking for is Carl Icahn.

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  3. Re:Where did it go? by brian0918 · · Score: 2, Informative

    You forget entirely about price collusion. When everyone is screwing the customer, what business can customers turn to?

    The newly-created one that has the huge incentive of customer demand for cheaper products.

    The problem with this whole debate is the pragmatic, unprincipled approach taken by everyone opposing the free market. According to this approach, nobody has a right to any of their products, services, or property - the customer instead has all those rights. Unfortunately for that argument, individuals have rights, regardless of how popular it has become to violate those rights. By promoting the violation of Google's employee's rights through government intervention, you promote the violation of your own rights.

  4. Re:Could be fun by muellerr1 · · Score: 2, Informative
    Very insightful post and I agree with just about everything you said, except this part:

    The leftist view that we need to prop up these companies is completely wrong. The righties' hands-off approach to all things private inevitably leads to wild fluctuations as companies consolidate and dominate government and individual roles followed by epic collapses and rebuilding periods.

    The government leaders of both left and right want to prop the companies up. It's everyone else who opposes this. As soon as the economy started tanking the 'free market' right turned immediately to corporate welfare, and the left went along with it because they're spineless.

    The left has more to lose here as their base strongly disapproves of corporate welfare while the right's base is more interested in keeping their portfolios afloat than actual free market ideology.

    --
    steampunk web design
  5. Google PREDATORY? by mi · · Score: 4, Informative

    for those who thought Google was any less predatory than Microsoft, think again...

    Thought again... And again... Nothing... What predation are you talking about? Microsoft's is well known:

    • deliberately crashing non-Microsoft's software on Microsoft's operating system
    • deliberate withdrawal of specifications required for compatibility
    • deliberate changes of standards/formats to cripple competing software
    • se of one monopoly (Operating System) to build another (web-browser, office software) — this one is, actually, not only predatory, but also illegal.

    What has Google done to justify being called equally predatory?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  6. Re:Could be fun by Wescotte · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

    It's closer than you think.