Japanese Antitrust Official Defends Approval Of Google Deal

Japan's antitrust authority defended its decision Wednesday to approve Yahoo Japan's deal with Google to use its search services after critics such as rival Microsoft criticized the agreement as anticompetitive.

Under the non-exclusive deal formally announced Tuesday, Google will provide both search and search-related advertising platform services to Yahoo Japan, which will license some of its Japanese search content to Google for use in its Japanese search results. Yahoo Inc. owns a minority stake in Yahoo Japan, which is a subsidiary of Softbank. "Both companies will remain independent search and advertising providers, will not share any customer or pricing information and will continue to vigorously compete in Japan," Daniel Alegre, vice president of sales for Google Japan and Asia-Pacific, wrote in his blog post Tuesday. "Our hope is that through this deal we can drive further innovation in ads and search and spur each other--and other companies--towards greater competition."