said by NPGMBR :

Sounds like Microsoft was thinking ahead on this. Maybe they're not as unintelligent as people often allude too.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rebuffed Google 's accusations that an acquisition of Yahoo would be anticompetitive.

"Google's clearly got a dominant position," Ballmer said. "They have about 75 percent of paid search worldwide. We think this enhances competition and anything else would be less good."

Ballmer continued with a hard push as to how a deal with Yahoo will let Microsoft move faster in building out areas such as search, online services and online advertising.

"We are going to have to innovate like crazy," Ballmer said.

But he also stressed how long it could take for a Yahoo deal to eventually benefit shareholders. Ballmer said he looks at whether investments will pay off five to 10 years down the line, but investors often want to see results in three years.

"Sometimes those investments look smart, sometimes it takes a while for them to pay off," Ballmer said.

said by firephoto :

Microsoft is trying to buy their way into a competitive position in the search engine area rather than just offer something that people want to use. Google started out as nothing and made something that people found useful and it made them successful.

said by rahvin112 :

They may have purchased Doubleclick (which BTW isn't final yet) making them the number one advertiser, but they became the number 1 search on their own.

said by RadioDoc :

Do you really know where your information is?