Microsoft to challenge Google-Yahoo Japan deal

So guess what Microsoft thinks of Yahoo Japan's decision to swap it out for Google as main search partner?

Yeah, not too happy about it. And it's going to do all that it can to thwart the deal. "We plan to present evidence to the Japanese FTC explaining why we believe that this deal is substantially more harmful to competition than Google's deal with Yahoo in 2008 that the DOJ found to be illegal," the company said in a statement issued Friday afternoon.

Not all that surprising given the situation and Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith's lambasting of the deal last week. "This agreement is even more anti-competitive than Google's deal with Yahoo in the United States and Canada that the Department of Justice found to be illegal," he said. "The 2008 deal would have locked up 90 percent of paid search advertising. This deal gives Google virtually 100 percent of all searches in Japan, both paid and unpaid. It means there will be no search competition in Japan and that Google will end up controlling all personal search information for all Japanese consumers and businesses."

Perhaps, but does that even matter since the Japan Fair Trade Commission has already publicly blessed the deal? Hard to imagine the JFTC backing away from that endorsement without losing face.