JagsLive writes "WASHINGTON, Oct 31 (Reuters) — Google may decide to scrap its proposed partnership with Yahoo rather than accept government-imposed antitrust restrictions on it, according to two sources familiar with the companies' discussions.
"Are they more serious about walking away? Yes. Have they decided? I'm not sure," one source told Reuters on Friday.
"Yahoo wants the deal, and they're willing to have Google sign anything at the Justice Department to have them do it," said the source.
A second source said that Google and Yahoo, Nos. 1 and 2 in the Internet search market, could announce as early as Friday that the deal had fallen apart.
A consumer group, legislators and Wall Street weighed in this week on Yahoo's proposed search-advertising deal with Google.
With the companies having granted the US Department of Justice (DoJ) two extensions to issue a decision on the deal, a fresh round of public commentary was to be expected.
JPMorgan analyst Imran Khan issued a research note on Wednesday that it's unlikely the DoJ will sign off on the Yahoo-Google partnership in its current form.
Meanwhile, senator Joe Barton, who heads the US congressional committee on energy and commerce, sent a letter on Tuesday to the head of the DOJ's antitrust unit, Thomas Barnett.
In his letter to Barnett, Barton urges the DoJ to "thoroughly investigate issues of competition and privacy that Yahoo failed to address fully in responding to questions about the online search advertising partnership agreement between Google and Yahoo"." Link to Original Source
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