When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped his bid to buy Yahoo, he took pains to point out that Yahoo’s search-sharing arrangements with Google were likely to bring intense antitrust scrutiny for any company acquiring Yahoo. Given Microsoft’s lengthy history with antitrust enforcement, Ballmer found that particularly unappealing.

that week, his prediction started to come true. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang expressing concern by “how that collaboration will impact competition” in online search.

Barton noted that, according to the latest comScore results, Google accounts for 60 percent of online searches, followed by Yahoo at 20 percent. Microsoft trails distantly at a mere nine percent.

Concern About info Collection

Barton referred to a area of Justice guideline on collaborations among competitors, which notes that even though collaborations may be intended to benefit competition, “they may in practice reduce competition.”

“I

am plus concerned about how the relationship within Google and Yahoo will affect the collection, storage, and use of input relating to an individual’s online activity,” Barton said. He added that amidst Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick and Yahoo’s purchase of advertising exchange RightMedia and ad network Blue Lithium, both companies are collecting “a great deal of details about people’s online activity and behavior.” The collaboration thus raises the “potential for the info to be shared or merged, and perhaps used by Google and Yahoo” in ways consumers don’t understand.

Barton posed eight detailed questions to Yang, including which company made the first move in forming the collaboration, how Yahoo will determine which search queries will be routed to Google, how Yahoo arrived at its estimate that the deal will generate $800 million in revenue for Yahoo, how Yang figures that the collaboration will not have an anticompetitive effect, what investments Yahoo…

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