Mountain View, California-based Internet search giant Google and its chief executive Eric E. Schmidt have  hired the Qatalyst Group and its leader Frank P. Quattrone, who was cleared of obstruction of justice charges last year, to help advise Google regarding the two-month-old Microsoft battle for control of embattled Sunnyvale, California-based Internet pioneer Yahoo, according to a recent New York Times report. Google and Quattrone Have Lengthy History Quattrone, 51, was one of the first investment bankers to take an interest in Google, and has ties with Schmidt going back many years. His involvement with Google in helping with the Yahoo deal is the first high-level transaction since putting the charges of manipulating stock offerings he had faced behind him. Quattrone, a former Credit Suisse banker, has already held several meetings and conferences calls to help advise Google, according to the Times report, which cites people familiar with the matter. As a new company in the late 1990s Google found a useful supported in Quattrone, and now Schmidt appears to be returning the favor, allowing the Qatalyst Group to advise the search engine leader on such a prominent ongoing battle for control of Yahoo. Google Taking More Active Interest in Yahoo Deal On Wednesday Yahoo announced that it will begin limited testing of Google's search advertising system AdSense for Search, as part of new efforts to show its stockholders the firm is worth more than the $42.4 billion Microsoft bid. Yahoo is working to close a deal that would join it with Google and Time Warner's AOL non- Internet service property, according to speculation in a recent Reuters report citing a source familiar with the talks. Such a three-way alliance would see Yahoo receiving cash from Time Warner, which would receive a 20 percent interest in the entity formed by combining Yahoo and AOL, while AOL itself would be valued at some $10 billion in the deal, according to the Reuters report. Google Hires Qatalyst Group To Advise On Yahoo Quattrone's position as head of his recently-formed firm the Qatalyst Group is the latest in a string of  positions he has held including head technology banker at Morgan Stanley and work at Deutsche Bank, and he has played a hand in many of the largest Internet stock market initial purchase offers of the 1990s, such as those of Netscape and Amazon. Some industry analysts see Google as benefiting from a protracted struggle for control of Yahoo, a battle that has recently included Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, parent company of leading social networking Web site MySpace. Within the past two weeks Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang and company president Susan Decker have met with Google executives, according to a recent New York Times report citing a person familiar with the visit, and with the addition of Quattrone Google may ramp up its efforts to help Yahoo fend off Microsoft. Related Links:
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9:21 pm on April 11, 2008 (utc 0)