Generally speaking, when giant corporations square off on a national level, consumers – be they here in Wisconsin or elsewhere – often find themselves quietly standing by the side, waiting for the dust to clear.
Such may be the case with Microsoft’s recent bid for Yahoo. A seemingly good stock offer was turned down by the No. 2 Internet giant and Microsoft pulled back.
You might be wondering why anyone in Wisconsin should care.
For businesses, a Microsoft-Yahoo merger represented a chance to provide some real competition with the Internet’s No. 1 giant – Google. You don’t have to search long in Milwaukee to find business leaders who say competition is a good thing when it comes to keeping costs low, preserving jobs and helping the economy.
Having both mega-Internet search providers duking it out for customers daily would also have helped provide consumers with a choice and not threaten online advertising. The merger would also have allowed Microsoft-Yahoo to check the market leader’s ever-growing dominance of and control over the Internet.
But that was not to be, so now consumers in Wisconsin and across the globe have something else to think about. The potential for a Google-Yahoo merger. A pairing of the No. 1 and No. 2 search engine providers could create a monopoly that would dominate online advertising dollars and control the majority of all Internet search activities. And don’t doubt for a second that the associated increase in business costs would be passed onto consumers here in the Midwest and elsewhere.
There are also those who have raised concerns with Google’s gathering of user information. They will likely have even more privacy questions if Yahoo falls under the influence of Google. Will Yahoo join Google’s information gathering practices and what voice will consumers here or elsewhere have in that matter? These giants joining forces will also likely raise serious anti-trust concerns and will need to be thoroughly reviewed and examined by Congress and the Senate.
In life, we all choose whether to get involved or stand on the side and wait for the dust to clear. In the Internet debate, our legislators in Washington need to clearly hear the consumer and business voices who believe in competition, be that here on the ground or in the virtual world of the Internet.
Protecting existing jobs, maintaining fairness in online advertising for our business community and preserving consumer choice is important to our economy. Leaving the door open to creating a monopoly is not.
Alderman Tony Zielinski represents Milwaukee’s 14th District.
