Google, Yahoo agree to delay their partnership deal again

By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published October 6, 2008, 4:29 PM

As the US Dept. of Justice appears to be preparing for an extensive investigation into the two search leaders' cooperative deal, Yahoo and Google have decided that another delay in their implementation is unavoidable.

October 11 was the date in which Yahoo was expected to begin making portions of its search ad inventory available to Google's AdSense. This was based on reports citing comments from both companies, although the exact timing of every event in Yahoo's new AdSense partnership with Google has only been known for certain to government agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, since the public version of Yahoo's notice was redacted.

But now, both sides are saying they've agreed to suspend implementation of the deal, to give time for the US Dept. of Justice to investigate further. An unnamed source told Reuters the delay would only last a few weeks. But Google's "Facts about the agreement" microsite continues to show a statement posted last month, saying the deal had already been suspended once already.

"Although Google and Yahoo are not required to receive regulatory approval of the arrangement before implementing it, the companies voluntarily agreed to delay implementation for up to three and a half months to give the US Department of Justice time to review the arrangement. We are confident that the arrangement is beneficial to competition," last month's Google statement continues to read.

During a meeting at the World Economic Forum last September 17, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters that a four-month delay had already been worked into the schedule, but that the term of that delay was set to expire in October, and shared his belief that no further delay was necessary.

"Time is money in our business," the Los Angeles Times quotes Schmidt as telling attendees. "We spent months and months and months to come up with a deal that is good for both companies. We are very committed to the deal."

BetaNews has inquired as to whether the delay was extended in order to benefit any other agencies, in the US and elsewhere, besides the DOJ. We have yet to receive responses. As of Monday afternoon, Google had not made adjustments to the content of its "Facts" site.