DOJ lays out concerns to Yahoo and Google, no lawsuit threats yet

Federal antitrust regulators have clearly laid out their concerns to Yahoo and Google regarding their controversial search advertising agreement, but discussions of potential remedies have yet to come up, according to a source familiar with the discussions. Antitrust regulators with the Department of Justice have largely narrowed their concerns into two buckets, one centering on the potential affect on advertising pricing in the short run and to what extent there would be a negative impact on the industry, and the second being will the agreement eventually lead to Yahoo exiting the search advertising business altogether, the source noted. Currently, the parties are discussing those concerns, but the conversations have not yet migrated to a point where the DOJ is saying they are illegal and the agency is contemplating filing a lawsuit to block the partnership, the source said. In most cases, once the DOJ indicates it may file a lawsuit, the agency leaves it up to the companies to suggest possible remedies to mitigate regulators' concerns, said the source. Yahoo and Google have not offered up any potential remedies to mitigate the DOJ's concerns, according to the source. Within the coming weeks, it will be clear whether such action is needed.