Yahoo, Microsoft finalize search agreement

[Jos]

Earlier this year, after a failed merger attempt and months of back and forth negotiations, Microsoft and Yahoo officially announced a search deal intended to help them compete more effectively with Google. The companies had hoped to have the details worked out by late October, and after a brief delay they've now "finalized and executed the definitive Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and License Agreement."

Under the 10-year deal, Microsoft's Bing search engine will power Yahoo's search results maintaining its own interface but featuring the "Powered by Bing' branding. In return, Yahoo will provide premium search-advertising services for both companies and keep 88% of the revenue generated on its properties for the first five years. For the remaining period the company would retain 93% of revenue earned.

Although apparently no upfront payment will be made, Yahoo is counting on the deal to help it significantly cut costs, while Microsoft sees it as an opportunity to increase its web search market share. The partnership is still being reviewed by antitrust regulators but the companies hope it will close in early 2010.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37232-yahoo-microsoft-finalize-search-agreement.html

 

[TomSEA]

MS and Yahoo! must be pretty scared of Google if they're jumping into the same bathtub.

 

[Vrmithrax]

Indeed. And you just KNOW that Google is hiding behind a shower curtain with a plugged-in toaster, just waiting to toss it in with them. <cue sinister suspense movie music>

 

[Guest]

Well, it's official. Yahoo is now a rent-a-brand, with no technology behind it. I'm afraid that Yahoo will start a slow decline as its users start switching to Bing (why get second-hand results and not go to the source directly?). And in 10 years when the deal expires, Yahoo will expire as well.

 

[windmill007]

Yahoo results weren't that good anyways so I think Bing powering there search will only help.

 

[levar]

Yahoo results for anything yahoo related, especially yahoo Answers! are exact. But good idea if they plan on competing against Google.

 

[vangrat]

I think this might be a precursor to that Yahoo Microsoft merger that they tried and failed, Seems like the lock in for 10 years will allow a reasonable enough time to pass so that in that time they will be able to try the merger again and possibly succeed as they will have been a cooperating organisation for such a long time already. In the meantime I do believe that Yahoo will loose alot of interest and honestly I don't believe people will move to Bing as MS hopes but instead be scared away to Google. My opinion of this whole thing is that it is a bad idea that is going to hurt both companies in both the short and long term.

 

[lfg18]

I have never likes the results displayed by microsoft, even if they change the name and get a new logo, and for yahoo, they are accurate whrn i'm searching for images but not that much for webpages, It is more than obvious that they are doing this to fight google

 

[HDDC]

I think it is great news.
Bing and Yahoo Search Engines both need to improve and Google has so much market share that it needs some decent competition. Should hopefully be a good thing for the end user IMO.

 

[compdata]

I guess this makes sense for Yahoo. Although the "lower costs" just mean they are going to lay off more people. I wonder what the moral is like at Yahoo these days.