Yahoo!-Google ad deal falling apart

Rumors of the death of Yahoo's proposed search advertising partnership with Google were not exaggerated at all, according to lawyers familiar with the deal. The Justice Department's Assistant Attorney General Tom Barnett met on Oct. 17 with lawyers for the parties for the second time in two weeks. The outcome of the meeting, which took place just ahead of an expected DOJ challenge to the agreement, was grim, said a lawyer who asked not to be identified. "Nothing good came from it," he said.