Big Ad Agencies Urge DOJ To Approve Yahoo-Microsoft Search Ad Partnership

Ballmer and Bartz Sign The Deal

In a sign of how much the big ad agencies want an alternative to Google (NSDQ: GOOG), all four major ad holding companies, along with the American Association of Advertising Agencies, are now publicly urging the Department of Justice to approve the Microsoft-Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) search ad partnership. In a letter to the Department of Justice, the top execs at Publicis, WPP, Interpublic, and Omnicom, along with AAAA CEO Nancy Hill, say that “this proposal enhances competition, and should be allowed to take effect as soon as possible.”

It’s not the first time that many of the executives have come out in favor of the deal — WPP CEO Martin Sorrell, for instance, has said that the deal would likely make search advertising cheaper. However, it once again shows that the execs consider the loss of Yahoo as a search competitor to be less important than the creation of what they hope will be a viable Google counterweight. It also indicates that Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and Yahoo’s efforts to win over the agencies have worked. After the deal was signed, some of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s first calls were reportedly to Publicis CEO Maurice Levy and to Sorrell.

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