Google Trustbusting

Looks like everyone's agog over the news that the Department of Justice was three hours away from suing Google and Yahoo before the Mountain View search giant killed the deal last month, but we can't figure out why. Everyone knew it was a matter of days or hours when Google walked away from the deal, but now that Sandy Litvack has told AmLawDaily how close Justice was to the lawsuit, it's apparently important. What's much more interesting in the interview is Litvack's declaration that when Justice issued a Nov. 5 press release calling attention to Google's massive share of the search market, the department "may or may not" be warning the company that it intends to go after Google on antitrust grounds, even without the Yahoo deal. That and the fact that Litvack was practically salivating over the chance to sue Google and is almost disappointed that the company didn't give him the chance.