Microsoft blasted both Google and Yahoo for raising advertising concerns that their partnership could drive up advertising rates.
Yahoo agreed to let Google place ads in its search results after announcing that merger talks with Microsoft had failed.
By Sara Smith
Jun 21, 2008 02:09 AM GMT
Kevin Johnson, President of the Platforms and Services Division at Microsoft Corp, was speaking at the "Cannes Debate" moderated by Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of British advertising group WPP, alongside executives of Yahoo and AOL. Last week, Yahoo agreed to let Google place ads in its search results after announcing that merger talks with Microsoft had failed. News of the deal between the two ad search leaders has notably raised concern among advertisers it could drive up ad rates.
Reacting to Hilary Schneider, Executive Vice-President of Yahoo's Global Partner Solutions division, who had described the deal as a "win-win", Johnson said: "If win is consolidating around 90 percent of the paid search with Google, you can say, ok, Google would do that as a win.""I don't think that from an industry perspective that supports having choices and having a number of strong players in the advertising business," he added. Commenting on Microsoft's plans, he said: "So we are going to continue to invest. We are going to focus on our strategy and build a world class advertising platform."
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