Canada’sCompetition Bureau is concerned that a new deal between Google Inc. andYahoo Inc. will result in rising costs for Canadian companies lookingto buy ads online.
Theworld’s two biggest search engines plan to partner, in a deal whichwould see ads from Google appear on Yahoo’s search results pages. TheCompetition Bureau announced it is launching an investigation into thematter.
Spokespeoplefor the Competition Bureau said that combining Yahoo with market leaderGoogle could create a near monopoly on Canada’s search market. Industryobservers have speculated that an agreement would leave Canada withoutcompetition in online search and allow Google to charge exorbitantprices for its ad space.
Google and Yahoo plan to finalize the partnership later this year.