Report: Microsoft Not Plotting Against Google with eBay

Microsoft is not plotting against search giant Google with Internet auction company eBay, though the two companies communicate often and could work together in the future, Reuters reports.

The news comes from a Friday report in German newspaper Die Welt, in which Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer spoke of the report earlier this week that implied Microsoft might be teaming up with eBay and Yahoo, the world’s second-largest search firm, to overthrow Google, according to Reuters.  For more, read Report: EBay Looks to Microsoft, Yahoo to Fight Google.

“Of course we talk with eBay all the time. But we don’t get together in a secret circle and hatch plans about what we could do together against Google,” Ballmer told Die Welt, according to Reuters.

In early April, Google saw a revenue jump of just under 80 percent, and it snatched up an even bigger slice of the search pie, Reuters reports. This type of speedy growth, as well as Google’s plan to offer an online classified service, has led eBay to begin considering collaboration efforts with companies like Microsoft, according to Reuters.

Though Ballmer acknowledged being close friends with eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman, he shot down the idea that the two firms would join forces and mount an offensive against Google, Reuters reports.

“A tie-up with the sole aim of shutting out a competitor makes no sense,” Ballmer said, according to Reuters. “The partnership must produce something that is useful for users and advertisers.”

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