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Microsoft CEO Ballmer Says Google Has 'Unfair Advantage'

by Amar Toor on March 4, 2010 at 10:10 AM

Few people know the finer points of antitrust law better than those over at Microsoft. So when one of the monolith's bigwigs accuses another company of unfair business practices, you'd take it pretty seriously, right? Then again, can you ever really trust an antitruster?

Speaking at a search engine conference on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer decried what he sees as clearly unfair advantages that Google enjoys at the expense of its competitors. While he didn't mention any specifics in his accusation, he did say that Microsoft is "expressing some of the issues and frustrations we see" to antitrust regulators. Yahoo!, Microsoft's soon-to-be partner in search, seems decidedly less enthusiastic about bringing Google to court. Said CEO Carol Bartz, "I am actually not interested in government intervention in anything... I wouldn't wish antitrust on anyone." Google, of course, had no comment.

As with any attempt to usurp Google's throne, it's difficult to tell where the sour grapes ends and legit legal beef begins. Both Microsoft and Yahoo!, however, have been pretty successful in lobbying for anti-Google regulations in the past. As The Huffington Post recalls, back in 2008, Microsoft successfully convinced regulators to shut down a proposed advertising partnership between Yahoo! and Google, and Yahoo! itself was able to put a stop to an agreement that would've given Google exclusive electronic rights to rare books. Whether or not Ballmer's latest "mystery case" will similarly hold water in court remains to be seen. For now, it better resembles harmless bravado from a competitor than a real threat to the Google empire. [From: Huffington Post]

Tags: antitrust, finance, google, law, microsoft, SearchEngines, SteveBallmer, top, yahoo

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