A search ad deal between Yahoo and Google announced back in June might have helped dramtically change Yahoo's fortunes. The company said it would generate $800 million from the proposed deal, and $250 million to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow within the first year. Instead, Yahoo made nothing from the deal, because Google pulled out amid fears of a protracted antitrust suit.

Those fears were very much justified, as we've now learned that the U.S. Department of Justice was a mere three hours away from filing the inevitable suit, according to Sandy Litvack, the lawyer hired by the Justice Department.

"We were going to file the complaint at a certain time during the day," Litvack said in an interview with American Laywer's AmLaw Daily. "We told them we were going to file the complaint at that time of day. Three hours before, they told us they were abandoning the agreement."

It's hard to tell whether or not Google made the right decision, but from Litvack's standpoint, he admitted to being "pretty confident" in the government's case.

Image Credit: Flickr Joe Gratz