Google addresses antitrust issue on Yahoo ad deal

Google's top executives on Thursday gave a glimpse into how it might try to deflect antitrust concerns of a possible ad-sharing deal with rival Yahoo, advising observers to look at the overall ad market. "You are narrowly focused on search advertising," co-founder Sergey Brin told reporters at the company's headquarters here before Google's shareholder meeting. "Advertising as a whole is much broader, and Internet advertising is much broader." The observation has bearing on the issue of whether Google has a monopoly and whether a deal with a rival would therefore reduce competition. "Advertisers always have multiple choices. It makes sense (for advertisers) to always use more than one," Chief Executive Eric Schmidt added. "It's incorrect to assert there's lock-in or opportunity for dominance in the ad space. Don't map (computer) platform economics to ad economics."
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9939473-7.html?tag=