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Google has expressed concern over the possible Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo.

Eric E. Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google Inc
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

"We would be concerned by any kind of acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said at a conference in Beijing. Yahoo's board rejected a bid by Microsoft to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion last month.

"We would hope that anything they did would be consistent with the openness of the Internet, but I doubt it would be," said Schmidt.

In 2004 the European Commission fined Microsoft $695 million (497 million euro) for abusing its market position, a case that the company lost on appeal in September of last year.

"We are concerned that there are things Microsoft could do that would be bad for the Internet," said Schmidt.

His comments mirror those of David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer who has said before that any deal could have an "inappropriateinfluence" over the Internet. "This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation," he said in a company blog earlier this month.

Earlier this month, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said the company would gain market share against Google in search and advertising, even if led to his " last breath" at the company.