inbound - 7:22 am on Oct 30, 2009 (gmt 0)

That's the real question... if you are Google, and Microsoft buys Ask (one of your top partners) do you allow the contract to be assumed?

I would be flabbergasted if the contract between Ask and Google does not have a get-out clause based on change of ownership.

As pointed out by MB, Google has plenty of advertisers (that they would probably not share with Microsoft), so they would probbaly walk away - the consequence of that would be to increase CPC on Google properties due to the number of searches reducing overnight (which could actually cause more people to seriously consider AdCenter).

The sooner we see the Yahoo/Bing tie up passed and integrated the better, 2 weak competitors is no problem to Google; a well-managed combination of Yahoo/Bing would make things interesting (especially if they keep BOSS...)