As Microsoft and Yahoo await government approval of their pending deal to join their two search businesses at the hip, the two companies received an important endorsement today from the world’s top advertisers.
In a letter today from the American Association of Advertising Agencies, and signed by the CEOs of the Publicis Groupe, WPP, Interpublic, and Omnicom, the advertisers gave their full support to the deal, urging “the Department of Justice to bring its antitrust review to a speedy conclusion.” The letter notes that the deal would strengthen Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s search advertising offerings, and thus would be good for competition.
Advertising agencies are wary of being beholden to an evermore powerful Google, and thus want to foster alternatives which might act as a counterweight. Most industry watchers expect the deal to pass DOJ scrutiny.
Below is a copy of the letter sent by the AAAA:
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION of ADVERTISING AGENCIES
Nancy Hill
President
Chief Executive OfficerOctober 19, 2009
Advertising is the fuel that powers the Internet. Most websites depend on online advertising to survive – it’s what allows them to offer consumers free content and services.
A very important form of online advertising is search advertising – the sponsored links that appear when a search engine answers a query. A healthy, competitive market for search and search advertising is crucial to the Internet’s future.
We believe that Yahoo! and Microsoft’s proposal to combine their technologies and search platforms is good for advertisers, marketing services agencies, website publishers and consumers.
These benefits are too important to wait for. As leading members of the advertising and marketing services industry, we urge the Department of Justice to bring its antitrust review to a speedy conclusion. This proposal enhances competition, and should be allowed to take effect as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Nancy Hill,
President & CEOMaurice Levy,
Chairman and CEO, Publicis GroupeMichael I. Roth,
Chairman and CEO, Interpublic Group of CompaniesMartin Sorrell,
CEO, WPP
John Wren,
President & CEO, Omnicom Group
anything to speed this process is a good thing
I also want to see competition between them and google
Google each click throughs cost around 30% more than yahoo or bing. So the deal is indeed better for advertisers.
With cost of maintaining net search engine being huge for yahoo, this deal is the savior of all from the evil google.
Is it just me or does that letter sound like it was written by someone in grade 5 directed at someone who is even younger?
Anyway, it will be good to have these guys together to potentially put a dent in Google.
Now it takes two search engine giants to try to beat google!
It will be interesting to see the outcome. I wish Yahoo did not give up so quick. Are all the good ideas in search done ? lol
If yahoo had wait any longer, their market share would have shriveled up even more.
Hay que hacerle competencia a google para evitar el monopolio.
Hmmm. So either these CEOs think that the price of advertising will go down with competition (not a bad assumption) or Microsoft is padding some pockets out there. #justsaying
They want to prevent the little guy from advertising on Google Ads!
Someone needs to knock some sense into Google. They’re treating webmasters like sh*t lately…. we need some competition to Adwords!
It only helps them in the short run. If Bing doesn’t manage to gain a lot more ground then they are both as good as road kill. Search Technology is the foundation of internet advertising.
Would Microsoft and Yahoo really offer much competition?
It’s not like ad prices will drop. Right now we’re paying what people are willing to pay for Google ads to reach Google’s users.
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