Microsoft Outlobbies Google

How much did Microsoft want to kill the Google-Yahoo deal? Try this: according to the Associated Press, the software company spent almost $2 million in federal lobbying last quarter. Google, meanwhile, spent $720,000, while Yahoo spent $570,000. Microsoft has assiduously worked to establish a Washington presence ever since its antitrust ordeal eight years ago, and clearly put it to work scuttling the Google-Yahoo ad swap arrangement. Google, for its part, has jacked up its own D.C. lobbying effort, spending $2.1 million so far this year, compared with $1.5 million in 2007.

Of course, Microsoft didn't spend all that money fighting Google. In fact, the two giants teamed up against the National Association of Broadcasters in the fight over freeing up "white spaces," or unused segments of the broadcast spectrum. Google and Microsoft also found themselves on the same side in the battle to reform the patenting system.