Justice Department begins antitrust investigation into Yahoo/Google deal

Chris Tompkins — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:07:01 -0700

The Washington Post is reporting that the Justice Department has begun a formal antitrust investigation looking into the Yahoo/Google deal announced last month. The Justice Department is requesting documents from Yahoo, Google and “other large companies in the Internet and media industries,” according to The Post. This upgraded investigation could stall the ad-share agreement which Yahoo and Google hope to finalize in the coming months.

The two companies state that the investigations are an expected step.

From The Post:

"This is a complicated situation, but one of the key questions is very simple," said David Balto, an antitrust lawyer who was competition policy director at the Federal Trade Commission during the Clinton administration. "What is Yahoo's incentive to continue to compete?"

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