Microsoft is willing to spend a lot of green to take over Yahoo. It’s even threatened to try and oust Yahoo’sdirectors if a friendly deal can’t be brokered. But so far nothing has worked, and Yahoo has been exploring other options, such as a deal with News Corp.(which isn’t interested), AOL (which wants to put its money into buying Bebo) or even Google (a move that would raise antitrust alarm bells). But that doesn’t mean Google will sit idly on the sidelines. According to the BBC, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking in China, said, "We would be concerned by any kind ofacquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft. We would hope that anything they did would be consistent with the openness of the internet, but I doubt it would be…We are concerned that there are thingsMicrosoft could do that would be bad for the internet." Google definitely seems to be on the Microsoft offensive lately. In a blog posting the company’s chief legal officer, DavidDrummond, wrote: "This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the internet: openness andinnovation."
Then again, the gloves are off on both sides, since Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, was saying earlier this month that he’d see his company gain market share against Google if it took his last breath.
And somewhere in the middle, if anyone remembers, is Yahoo.
