No one thought that Google (GOOG) would like Microsoft’s (MSFT) bid for Yahoo!.(YHOO). While Google will still be the world leader in search, the new combined company proposed by Redmond would be No.2. According to comScore data, Google had 62% of worldwide searches in December. Yahoo! had 12% and Microsoft about 3%. The figures in the US are better for Yahoo! and Microsoft, but search is a global business.
According to The Wall Street Journal, in an essay posted on the internet Google Senior Vice President David Drummond, asks whether Microsoft could "now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC." With Google at 4x the share of global search that a Microsoft/Yahoo! roll-up would have, it needs to take the crying towel somewhere else.
Douglas A. McIntyre