Advertiser group objects to Google-Yahoo tie up

By Gina Keating

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Association of National Advertisers sent a letter objecting to the proposed Internet search advertising partnership between Yahoo Inc and Google Inc to government regulators reviewing the deal, the group said on Sunday.

The letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett, noted that "a Google-Yahoo partnership will control 90 percent of search advertising inventory," the ANA said in a statement.

The partnership "will likely diminish competition, increase concentration of market power, limit choices currently available and potentially raise prices to advertisers for high quality, affordable search advertising," the statement said.

Barnett could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

Yahoo "remains steadfast in its belief that this deal -- in which prices are determined by advertiser demand-driven auctions, not by collaboration between Yahoo and Google -- will strengthen Yahoo's competitive position...and will help to drive a more robust, higher quality...marketplace for our advertisers," the company said in a statement on Sunday.

Some advertisers have lauded the deal, which some have described as providing a more efficient online ad marketplace.

Yahoo struck the agreement in June with Google, the world's dominant supplier of Web search services, as it sought to shore up its advertising business and ward off pressure to merge from Microsoft.

The two companies said at the time that they were not required to get regulatory approval before implementing the deal, but had voluntarily delayed it for up to three-and-a-half months while anti-trust regulators review the arrangement.  Continued...