The openness of the Internet is what made Google -- and Yahoo! -- possible. A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It's what makes the Internet such an exciting place.So Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. 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.Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers.This hostile bid was announced on Friday, so there is plenty of time for these questions to be thoroughly addressed. We take Internet openness, choice and innovation seriously. They are the core of our culture. We believe that the interests of Internet users come first -- and should come first -- as the merits of this proposed acquisition are examined and alternatives explored.
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Google has said on its blog that it finds Microsoft’s attempt to buy Yahoo  "troubling," and that Google believes "this the purchase of Yahoo is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another."

"The hostile bid by Microsoft to Yahoo is worrying," said David Drummond, the chief legal officer for Google. He continued by saying the takeover is "about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."

Press agency Europa Press said that Eric E. Schmidt and Jerry Yang know that the "possibility of launching a counter is not possible for Google."

Yahoo said that their executives are examining the offer from Microsoft, a process that they said may take some time. 

The Google blog cited Microsoft’s alleged "inappropriate and illegal influence over the PC," as the reasons for their concerns. They continued by saying that “Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies."