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More to the Yahoo deal than meets the eye?

One publication opined Microsoft's offer for Yahoo may be a way to draw Google's business to the attention of antitrust authorities.

Does Steve Ballmer dream of a day when US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has Eric Schmidt and Google under her watchful eye instead of Microsoft?

Interesting idea, as posed by The Economist. Microsoft can push the whole Yahoo proposal as far as possible, to the point where the FTC and the EU initiate a closer look at search advertising and market forces.

"By responding on February 4th to Microsoft’s bid by offering whatever support Yahoo! might require, Google may have walked into Microsoft’s sucker punch," the report said. Even the most blinkered Microsoft hater would have to see a Google-Yahoo relationship as an even greater monopoly.

If those unnamed antitrust experts in the report really do think Google has long deserved a healthy laparoscope of scrutiny, Microsoft should be willing to help that along. We wonder what Google would be worth if it were split into an ad network and a search business. Sleep well, Mr. Schmidt.