The whole structure of the internet could be profoundly altered if Microsoft's $44.6 billion offer for search engine Yahoo is ultimately approved.

Reports suggest that the US Congress Judiciary Committee will meet on February 8th to discuss the competition issues surrounding the takeout attempt.
House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers and ranking member Lamar Smith noted in a joint statement on the move: "Microsoft's bid to acquire Yahoo is certainly one of the largest technology mergers we've seen and presents important issues regarding the competitive landscape of the internet.

"The committee will hear from experts who will weigh in on whether this proposed consolidation works to further or undermine the fundamental principles of a competitive internet."

Regulators in Europe have already said that they too will be carefully looking at the move, which would give Microsoft a significant foothold in the search engine market.

Recent figures from comScore suggested that Google was currently dominating the search marketing sector and that it held a 56 percent share in 2007. Faced with this situation, Microsoft's move to acquire Yahoo would represent a major industry shake up.

Speaking to the UK's BBC site, analyst Evan Stewart of Zuckerman Spaeder said that regulators on both side of the Pond were likely to rubberstamp the deal if it went ahead.

"At the end of the day, it's hard to see how regulators could reject this," he explained to the broadcaster.

Another analyst, William Mahnic of Case Western University, added: "The big thing here is that Google has such a huge share."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google reacted angrily to the takeover talk. In a blog entry, the firm's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said that "the openness of the internet is what made Google - and Yahoo! - possible".

He went on to explain: "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."

However, Mr Drummond added that Microsoft's bid raised "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," he continued.

"Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC?"

In conclusion, Mr Drummond said that Google was dedicated to "openness, choice and innovation" and expected a debate about the "interests of internet users" should be undertaken as a result of the proposed deal.

Announcing the bid last week, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer said: "We have great respect for Yahoo, and together we can offer an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.

"We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our customers and industry partners."

Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, added: "Our lives, our businesses, and even our society have been progressively transformed by the web, and Yahoo has played a pioneering role by building compelling, high-scale services and infrastructure.

"The combination of these two great teams would enable us to jointly deliver a broad range of new experiences to our customers that neither of us would have achieved on our own."