Google debates ditching Yahoo ads deal

 

Gallery

By Reuters

Posted on 31 Oct 2008 at 09:48

Google and Yahoo could walk away from their search deal by the middle of next week, reports are claiming.

According to the The Wall Street Journal , the two companies are struggling to come to an arrangement with the US Department of Justice on implementing their search advertising partnership.

Earlier this month, the companies announced they had decided to delay implementing the controversial deal, struck in June, due to ongoing discussions with regulators.

The deal, which allows Google to sell advertising for some of Yahoo's online advertising space, has drawn fierce criticism from advertisers, who fear higher prices.

Google and Yahoo together owned more than 80% of the web-search market in August, according to ComScore.

Yahoo spokesman Tracy Schmaler would only says discussions between the two companies are ongoing: "We believe strongly that this agreement will strengthen Yahoo's competitive position in online advertising and will help to drive a more robust, higher quality Yahoo marketplace for our advertisers, publishers and users."

Google struck a similar vein: "We are confident that the arrangement is beneficial to competition, but we are not going to discuss the details of the process."