Posted on May 11, 2009 at 4:17 PM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Case Studies | Joint Ventures and Alliances | Law
Tagged: Christine Varney , DOJ , Google , Microsoft , Section 2 of the Sherman Act

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As expected, Justice Department antitrust chief Christine Varney erased a policy the Bush administration set in place that made it difficult to pursue antitrust cases against big firms, such as Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG).

Varney said in a statement that "the division will return to tried and true case law and Supreme Court precedent in enforcing the antitrust laws."

An AP article noted the new rules mark a return to the antitrust policies of the Clinton administration. One target of that administration was Microsoft, which some speculate could bid for software company SAP AG (NYSE:SAP). MSFT could also make a move to get Yahoo Inc.'s (NASDAQ:YHOO) search business. Not that it needs it to fund acquisitions, but the Redmond, Wash. company did get a fresh capital infusion on Monday, when it launched a $3.75 billion debt issue which Reuters said attracted about $10 billion in demand.  

Meanwhile, Google has been garnering more antitrust attention of late. Earlier this month, the Justice Department opened an inquiry into a settlement Google made with authors and publishers over Google Book Search, and it also got in trouble for sharing board member ties with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). With that and plenty more scrutiny, Google felt the need to vent its frustration in a blog post.

As for the M&A side, Google CEO Eric Schmidt doesn't think prices for acquisitions are cheap enough yet. - Baz Hiralal

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Google's diversity gets it in trouble



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