Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have reportedly submitted a list of concessions that would deflate their proposed Internet advertising partnership to appease antitrust regulators threatening to block the alliance.
The companies offered their revisions to the U.S. Justice Department during the weekend, according to a story posted Monday on The Wall Street Journal’s Web site.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said Google and Yahoo are now willing to limit the amount of revenue generated from the partnership and shorten the deal’s duration. Google’s advertising customers would also be given the option to not have their commercials appear on Yahoo’s Web site.
Under the new plan, Yahoo would be limited to getting no more than 25 percent of its search advertising revenue from Google and their partnership would expire after two years. The original contract signed in June spanned 10 years and didn’t have any restrictions on how frequently Yahoo could draw upon Google’s technology for displaying ads alongside its search results.
Yahoo had estimated Google’s system would enable it to boost its revenue by $800 million annually, but the restrictions would cut that amount in half.
Putting a 25 percent limit on its revenue from Google’s system would mean limit Yahoo’s take to about $400 million annually, based on Yahoo’s search advertising sales during the past four quarters.
Representatives from Google and Yahoo declined to comment on the Journal’s report, but confirmed the companies remain in talks with the Justice Department in hopes of winning clearance to join forces.
Antitrust regulators have been taking a hard look at Yahoo’s proposed reliance on Google’s technology because the two companies combined control more than 80 percent of the U.S. search advertising market.
Microsoft Corp. and the Association of National Advertisers, among others, have argued the arrangement would enable Google to gradually increase advertising prices and exert more control over the flow of e-commerce.
The Justice Department signaled it was considering a legal challenge to the deal in September when it hired veteran antitrust lawyer Sanford Litvack to review the case.
Google had vowed to launch the Yahoo partnership by mid-October, but backed off to avoid a legal battle that would have focused on the market power that Google has been accumulating while running the Internet’s most profitable advertising network.
Analysts have argued that it might not make much sense for Yahoo and Google to work together if they are forced to make too many concessions.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More