Google calls Microsoft's 'hostile' bid for Yahoo troubling

A Microsoft-Yahoo merger could threaten the openness on which the Internet is based, a Google executive says.

Microsoft's $44.6 billion "hostile" bid "raises troubling questions," writes David Drummond, Google Chief Legal Officer, expresses cynicism in a blog posted on Sunday

"Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies--and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets," he writes. "Could the acquisition of Yahoo allow Microsoft--despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses--to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet?"

Microsoft and Yahoo together have a large share of the e-mail and instant messaging accounts, as well as two of the most popular Web portals. Drummond wonders about the possibility that Microsoft could use its dominance in the PC software market to unfairly limit access to competitors' Web services.

Yahoo said on Saturday that it is evaluating the unsolicited bid.