Yahoo and Microsoft have finally received the go ahead on their deal for Microsoft to power search and ads for Yahoo.
According to Yahoo! Finance, the deal is finally greenlighted:
Microsoft and Yahoo! announced today that they have received clearance for their search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, and will now turn their attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.
Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!’s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.
Bartz spoke out in a press conference about Yahoo’s new direction and hopes for the future:
Yahoo! is a place where millions go every day to see what is happening with the people and things that matter to them most. We’re the largest online media company in the world. We’re number one in news, sports, and finance, and a leader in key entertainment properties…
But we face a formidable competitor in one aspect, and that aspect is search. It became obvious to us that working with another great technology company would help us share the investment expense to scale the market. This deal enables us to keep a healthy revenue stream and invest in areas critical to our future, while Microsoft invests in search technologies…
Search will continue to be an integral part of the Yahoo! user experience, and we will continue to integrate search throughout all our properties, and invest in making our user experience even better based on search functionality. But the back-end technologies will be powered by Bing.
The deal had been languishing in red tape land for some time, but finally the agreement is going into effect and Microsoft will officially be powering Yahoo search.
Yahoo also said:
Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!’s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.
Steve Ballmer commented briefly:
This really is a win-win agreement for Microsoft and for Yahoo! Both companies benefit from scale and from positive economics. Consumers really will get better products, advertisers will get more value, better return on their investments, and I think it will help the industry as a whole to prosper. It’s a great example of what can be accomplished with shared vision, shared values, and we are super excited to see this relationship flourish and come to life over the next months and years ahead.
Yahoo will be directing more of their efforts toward the mobile and news media market, said Bartz.