Google has expressed its concerns about the free flow of information on the internet if Microsoft succeeds in acquiring Yahoo.

Last month Microsoft made an unsolicited offer to purchase Yahoo. The bid was initially rejected, but executives from the two companies met last week to discuss the proposed deal, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“We would be concerned by any kind of acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft,” chief executive Eric Schmidt told Reuters.

Here is a bit of the snippet that ran on the wires yesterday:

“We would be concerned by any kind of acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft,” Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told reporters.

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

Schmidt pointed to Microsoft’s past history and “the things that it has done that have been so difficult for everyone”, but he did not elaborate.

. . .

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

Schdmidt’s comments follow a ruling by a European Court in 2004 that Microsoft abused the near-monopoly power of its Windows operating system to gain advantage over its competitors.

I don’t remember Google complaining all that much when it held the monopoly uncontested over indexing and searching. Now they face a well-heeled and finely skilled competitor in Microsoft and now they’re claiming fowl?

Reminds me of a little scene in one of my favorite movies - Casablanca…

Rick (Bogart): How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault (Rains): I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!