A reader, Darrin (from ReverseMortgageGuides), who says he spends about $100,000/month on Google adwords received a voicemail from a Cleary Gottlieb lawyer named Donald Burke. Burke says he’s representing Google in the Yahoo advertising deal.
The message, linked below (with part of the phone number toned out), says: “Hi Darren my name is Donald Burke. I’m calling on behalf of Google to talk with Adwords advertisers about the new proposed Google/Yahoo Advertising Agreement. If you have a couple of minutes to talk with me, my number is…Thanks very much. Take care.”
Darrin says he called the attorney back and was asked to make a public testimonial in support of the deal:
I received a voicemail from an attorney representing Google yesterday so of course I called back (voicemail attached). We spend about 100K a month on AdWords so we’d apparently been targeted because of that. He was looking for large advertisers who use both Google and Yahoo (we do) who would be willing to provide public testimonials in support of outsourcing Yahoo’s search ads to Google. I told him I’m a free-market competition kind of guy so he tried to address my concerns for about 15 minutes and then called it quits.
A recording of the first voicemail is here.
Darrin says the attorney was looking for advertisers that use both Google and Yahoo. It’s certainly possible that Google has gathered Yahoo advertiser information on their own, or that the lawyer is just making a guess that big Google advertisers also use Yahoo. What would be disconcerting is if Yahoo has handed over a list of their advertisers to Google for purposes of figuring out which ones are spending lots of money on both platforms.
I thought DirecTV was the only company making this kind of random phone calls.
” It’s certainly possible that Google has gathered Yahoo advertiser information on their own, or that the lawyer is just making a guess that big Google advertisers also use Yahoo. ”
Google has all the insight into Yahoo advertisers they need via DoubleClick. Google knows EXACTLY how much DoubleClick customers pay on Yahoo search, they know keyword CPCs, they know search volume, they know where advertisers bid more on Yahoo vs. Google and any other data point of interest. Same for Yahoo’s display business & other sites too.
Will someone PLEASE write about this. It is overlooked by overlooked when discussing the deal’s threat to competition.
Setting prices, manipulating auctions (call it what you want) is wayyyyyyyyyy too easy with that data.
Whatever Google wants, Google gets. It’s going to happen, and Yahoo will succumb because its advantageous for them.
I wouldn’t want Google to monopolize the search market.
Bit late now James
yup, they already have!
Good job Darrin.
Isn’t a good idea, people would like use the mobile – not voice mail.
Easy, quick and usual…
Your name is not Bill and you don’t understand this article in any way at all, period.
At least “Don’t be evil” slogan worked on Darrin
I’m not for the Google/yahoo deal, I love both companies and feel that this would give additional control to Google, resulting in a higher prices for lack of competition.
Two questions:
1) Why does a firm representing Google not have a SF or Silicon Valley office?
2) Why is there no Donald Burke listed in the attorney directory for Cleary Gottlieb ?
Interesting. I wonder if anyone will bother to ask for Donald’s perspective so that this isn’t reported based on hearsay, alone.
http://www.cgsh...;LastName=Burke
He’s not in LinkedIn’s directory either.
There are lots of clients out there spending far more than 100K/month on Google’s ad platform. Should be interesting to see if other cases like this one are reported.
Cleary doesn’t have a Palo Alto office because it doesn’t need one. They’re one of the top firms in the world. Clients come to them. Wachtell doesn’t have any offices outside NY, Cravath is only in NY and London, and so on. Believe it or not, SF and SV are not the center of the universe for top-flight legal work. Google obviously recognized that for this particular kind of work it would have to go to the source. It makes perfect sense for Google to be using the DC office of Cleary for regulatory/legislative affairs. Why would they want a California tech firm to be doing that?
The guy did give an area code and prefix that match the Cleary numbers. But I don’t understand why he’s not on the list, although there is a Kevin Burke who’s a corporate 2nd year.
Burke just recently joined the firm.
We also have several clients who spend that much on Google and Yahoo.
It is perfectly understandable – given the sudden recession – why Google would become more proactive in their social engineering and marketing strategies to find advocates for the deal.
Getting a range of perspectives from prominent Advertisers would be taking a preemptive strike at the anticipated likely arguments from the opposition.
My guess is Darrin’s perspective doesn’t make it into the lobbying documents.
Do you think that because Darrin contacted TC there could be any retaliatory action against him? My guess is that it could happen.
“Do No Evil” Google!
Your shitty one-line comments that add ZERO value and a crap link that gets you no google juice from TC must stop. Now!
Please forgive me. I am just a humble entrepreneur-to-be from India.
Tom – So you think that you added great value to the discussion. Half of the comments on TC are crap.
Stop policing and write some thought full comments.
-T
Hi Tom.
According to Compete.com, Reverse Mortgage Guides gets 15,000 uniques per month. There overall visits are 16,000 per month.
So, are you telling me it will take $100,000 per month to just get aprox. 15,000 visitors per month, or an avg of 500 visitors per day?
I’m not sure, but I think there definitely needs to be competition to have a fair, & competitive search market, vs. what is “technically” already happening….a monopoly.
Those stats are almost never right. Plus, mortgage keywords are probably really expensive on adwords. $1-$5 per click?
yes, and some terms like mesothelioma (sp?) cost upwards of $20-30 per click.
Just because someone spends $100,000 a month on keywords doesn’t mean they are all for the same site. It could be a bunch of sites, and he could even be managing campaigns for other people.
Not to mention multiple landing pages if you know what’s up w/lead gen in the financial service space.
Dez, you’re an insult to techcrunch readers. Compete is never correct for most sites. All of my sites are 3x to 7x less on Compete than they are on Google analytics.
Really “Mez”? You are going to insult someone based on one anecdotal data point? *You* obviously aren’t that smart either because Google Analytics (and every other analytics platform) isn’t too accurate either. Try building your own analytics system (we just did) and then try and speak.
hmmm i thought you guys hate monopoly.
He should have added a “don’t tell TC” request as well. Must be pretty embarrassing to know 1 million people know what he’s up to now.
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Well researched article.
Sunita
If the deal does happen, then I don’t see why Yahoo prefers Google to MS. Or Yahoo is just trying to drag another potential boss in the game to stabilize its stock? Its stock price goes up/down whenever MS talks about Yahoo.
I have to admit, I don’t understand this article. Why does Google care? Why would they call individuals? The advertisers have no leverage? Would they stop their ads?
Probably not if they are generating revenue.
I think it could make placing ads more efficient since you have one centralized control point and hopefully able to better optimize the ad versions.
So, I’m suspect of the accuracy of the call.
Obviously, you have no clue.
Plus, you are promoting a useless shitty site. Get a grip.
Does that make you feel powerful Charlie?
At least I am promoting something.
“At least I am promoting something” Yes. Learn to read English: you are promoting a useless shitty site. Get a grip
it’s not a good thing that you’re promoting anything at all in the comments.
They might just need to team up to give advertisers a better change or might be a big deal is going on off screen.
Google needs to remedy this iGoogle pages fiasco !
haha, Google is desperate! This deal will not be accepted, I am pretty sure about it!
We spend over 100k on Google and 30k on yahoo and got the same call. He left a voice mail, I never called back. If anyone has any specific questions you want asked I can record the call and post it here.
Google should take over yahoo, yahoo is showing a declining trend now.
They won’t let you ask your readers to click on the text ad links on your page, but they go and ask us to “click on” their partnership deal. How deliciously ironic.
Excellent point.
Google slam dunks one for “team evil” with this move.
I just don’t like the sound of this.
Why Microsoft and Google want Yahoo:
http://www.tech.../gcoverup1.html
“What would be disconcerting is if Yahoo has handed over a list of their advertisers to Google for purposes of figuring out which ones are spending lots of money on both platforms.”
While it would be disconcerting indeed it would not be surprising for Yahoo to do something completely unethical in an effort to profit.
Remember the issue with Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist? The people at Yahoo who decided to go forward with turning records over to the government are the same people there today. Their actions speak volumes about their ethical standards and sense of right vs. wrong.
http://news.bbc...fic/4221538.stm
“Their actions speak volumes about their ethical standards and sense of right vs. wrong.”
The standards you refer to are always different with different business environments. Quoting the BBC is always a risky [let's say stupid] proposition.
Che Guevara got himself killed because he tried to impose [at gun point] his warped sense of “right and wrong” –Someday you will grow up and, hopefully, understand.
Peace.
Your post doesn’t make a point. For the record, neither Google nor Microsoft turned over records when asked. Only Yahoo.
Here is Y’s apology about putting the guy in jail. They’re paying his family for their mistake.
http://www.iht....iness/yahoo.php
http://blog.wir...-settles-w.html
@Kev – Please read ‘my point’ –Someday you will grow up and, hopefully, understand…
We can all be confused and/misinformed from time to time [even you]. But, don’t worry my child. your deep stupidity will be with you forever. And even longer if you keep coming up with *really important* links.
this deal is a dream
We all know its happening. Why should anybody be surprised about hearing this type of news? Google and Yahoo have been trying to put something together for a long while now. After Yahoo left microsoft hanging the only fair conclusion was that google was putting together a sweeter deal for yahoo. Everybody is sharing information these days. Just my 2 cents.
Steve
grindvision.com
Oy vey!
wow, google seems kinda desperate. never thought I’d see that from them
http://gatesand...s.blogspot.com/
I’m not sure I see the “evil” here that is so apparent to so many of you commenters. What exactly is wrong with Google asking its best customers to support them?
The advertisers are right to be worried about a monopoly in online advertising, where there is only one significant marketplace that have too much power in pricing. Even if their wish to operate a free market, the consolidation is enough to drive the price up for all participants and yet good, strategic deals are no longer the goal.
There is nothing wrong about this support call.