Strong Words From Yahoo On Ad Deal

Yahoo has said it will go ahead in its ad deal with Google regardless of the decision by government antitrust lawyers.

Yahoo has come out with some fighting words – that have been echoed by Google – in regard to the ad deal the companies have. Starting next month, Google will sell ads on some Yahoo search pages.

They’ve waited three months to begin implementing the deal in order to give antitrust regulators time to scrutinize their plan. But in the wake of criticism from Microsoft and the Association of National Advertisers, as well as rumors that the Justice Department will challenge the deal, Yahoo has decided to speak loudly.

Hilary Schneider, executive VP of Yahoo US, told the BBC:

"We are confident the agreement makes sense. We are committed to moving ahead. Remember this is a voluntary process we engaged in and we think it’s really working in terms of helping the Department of Justice understand the issues."

She was backed up by Yahoo co-founder David Filo:

"We went to them (the justice department) pro-actively and said ‘let’s go through a review’. We have done that and we are confident that all parties will agree this is good for competition in the long term. And so we are expecting them to agree with that."

This talk arrives as Yahoo has announced some changes to its site, including a redesign of its homepage and plans to open its music section to both iTunes and Amazon.