Google Delays Yahoo Deal

Google has announced that it's delaying its ad deal with Yahoo in order that regulators can study it properly.

It’s not long since the fighting talk, that the Google-Yahoo ad deal would go ahead no matter what anyone thought. Now a little more time has passed and cooler heads seem to have prevailed, as Google announced that the deal would be delayed to allow regulators the time to study it properly.

It originated as a reaction to the Microsoft takeover bid of Yahoo, and would – maybe will – see Google supply ads related to terms on Yahoo search pages.

But now Google is saying that “when we announced our advertising agreement with Yahoo in June we agreed to delay its implementation until October to give regulators time to look at the details. As we are still in conversation with the Department of Justice we have agreed to a brief delay in implementing the agreement while those discussions continue.”

The pending deal has brought criticism from a number of quarters.