Sidak Discusses Proposed Google-Yahoo Alliance and Microsoft-Yahoo Merger in Reuters

April 13, 2008

A Reuters article on the proposed collaboration between Google and Yahoo and the merger of Microsoft and Yahoo quoted Criterion founder J. Gregory Sidak on the antitrust review that Yahoo is likely to face.

"Europe poses a larger antitrust risk for any of the (Yahoo) deals," Sidak said. In the absence of certainty, U.S. regulators tend to opt for less antitrust intervention. The Justice Department, in particular, has a reputation for approving deals that antitrust experts consider suspect, most recently the merger of the only two U.S. satellite radio companies XM and Satellite Radio Inc.

"I think any company contemplating a merger or acquisition would want to get it through during the Bush administration," said Sidak, expressing a commonly held view in the legal community that, even if Republican nominee John McCain wins the 2008 election, there will be some tightening of antitrust enforcement.

To read the article in full, click here.