Microsoft not hatching plan with eBay: paper
Microsoft is not plotting against Google with eBay, Microsoft's chief executive told a German newspaper, but he said he did often talk with his counterpart at eBay about working together.
"Of course we talk with eBay all the time," Steve Ballmer told Germany's Die Welt in an interview published on Friday. "But we don't get together in a secret circle and hatch plans about what we could do together against Google."
Google posted a 79-percent jump in revenue earlier this month as it took a greater share of the Internet search market.
Its rapid growth has spurred eBay to consider a partnership with Microsoft or Yahoo, the world's second-biggest Internet search engine company, as Google takes aim against Web auction company eBay with an online classified service.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that eBay, a major buyer of Web search keyword advertising, is talking to Yahoo and Microsoft as well as Google about forming an alliance.
But Ballmer said: "A tie-up with the sole aim of shutting out a competitor makes no sense. The partnership must produce something that is useful for users and advertisers."
He added, however, that he did regularly talk to eBay's CEO Meg Whitman, who he said was a close personal friend.
"I've known her for 22 years, and so we talk a lot about what Microsoft and eBay could do together," he said.
Ballmer added that he had no plans to pay for Microsoft's new version of Windows, Vista, through advertising.
"You mean, would we finance Vista more by advertising than by selling software? Not likely," Ballmer said. "Part of the screen would then be covered in advertisements. I'm sure most customers would rather pay $50 or $60 more for their PC."
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.
NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at