Yahoo!-Microsoft Union Gets Regulatory Thumbs Up
ADOTAS – After so many months of planning and worrying and fingernails chewed to the nub, the moment has finally come: the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission approved the Microsoft-Yahoo! search deal.
Let’s uncork the champagne!
Microsoft and Yahoo! can now implement the search deal, which makes Bing the default algorithmic and paid search provider on Yahoo! sites for the next 10 years, first announced in July 2009. However, the integration of Yahoo’s algorithmic search into Bing is not expected to be complete until the end of the year, and the migration of U.S. advertisers and publishers may have to wait till after the 2010 holiday season. Global advertisers will take the big leap in 2012.
Microsoft’s AdCenter platform will handle self-serve search campaigns for Yahoo! sites as the company licenses its search technology and Panama ad-buying system to Microsoft for the 10 year period. Yahoo!, however, will be in charge of sales for premium, non-automatic search campaigns on both companies’ owned sites.
The DOJ’s statement was less a blessing than a recognition that a Microsoft-Yahoo! search tag team is not going to discourage competition in the U.S. market. The DOJ did suggest the partnership would “enable more rapid improvements in the performance of Microsoft’s search and paid advertising technology.”
Antitrust regulators’ lack of objection was a 180 from their reaction to a proposed Yahoo!-Google search deal in 2008, a proposed partnership that was also chastised by advertising agency advocates before Google withdrew its proposal. Agencies were quite pleased with the Microsoft-Yahoo! coupling.
Google had no comment about being a jilted suitor as it was drowning its sorrows in scotch at a dimly lit bar, softly muttering about the one that got away (not Yelp, the other one that got away).
“Although we are just at the beginning of this process, we have reached an exciting milestone,” gushed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in a statement from the companies. “I believe that together, Microsoft and Yahoo! will promote more choice, better value and greater innovation to our customers as well as to advertisers and publishers.”
Regulatory approval has to be some consolation for Yahoo!, whose search numbers have been slipping since the release of Bing over the summer. Also, Compete released data this week that Facebook has overtaken Yahoo as the second-most popular website in the U.S.
For some reason the thought of Yahoo! jumping on the shoulders of Microsoft to take on the gargantuan Google really reminds me of this silly Monty Python sketch in which diminutive archeologists take on the literal giants of the field through piggybacking. (The whole bit is hilarious, but the section I refer to starts about five minutes in.)
Reader Comments.
No comments yet
Leave a Comment
Article Sponsor
More News
-
Loading ...
Latest News
- Covario Issues Annual Client Awards for SEO/SEM Success February 10th 2012 ADOTAS - Search engine marketing/SEO services provider Covario issued the [...] more »
- BlueKai Report Explains DMPs to Publishers February 10th 2012 ADOTAS - BlueKai released a report this week on the [...] more »
- Funding in Brief: $10M for Spongecell, $8M for Prolexic February 9th 2012 ADOTAS – Rich media ad company Spongecell has raised $10 million [...] more »
- Google AdMob Axes Minimum Bids, Targeting Fees February 9th 2012 ADOTAS - As of Feb. 15, Google will change its [...] more »
- Infographic: HootSuite Analyses Social Media Impact of Super Bowl Ads February 7th 2012 ADOTAS - So, it’s the Tuesday after the Super Bowl, [...] more »
- Facebook to Serve Mobile Ads in Coming Weeks February 6th 2012 ADOTAS – According to a Financial Times report, Facebook will [...] more »
- Survey: 39 Percent of Mobile Users Responded to Super Bowl Ads Via Mobile February 6th 2012 ADOTAS - During the Super Bowl yesterday, mobile ad network [...] more »
Features
- Infographic: The Online Ad Industry Is Like the Stock Market February 10th 2012
- Mobile Search: More Intent, More SMB Opportunity February 10th 2012
- BlueKai Report Explains DMPs to Publishers February 10th 2012
- Attribution Online: Introducers and Influencers and Closers… Oh My! February 9th 2012
- With gTLDs, Global Branding Starts with a Name February 9th 2012
Spotlight
Sponsormob Leads the Way Into RTB for MobileADOTAS – For more than half a decade, Berlin-based tech firm Sponsormob has remained relevant in an industry characterized by [...] more...
Reader Favorites
Classifieds
- PS Technical Writer - SEO Data Analyst
- Interactive Project Manager
- Media Buyer
- PHP Software Engineer (Facebook Platform/Social AP
- SEO/Marketing Internship at Green Education Startu
Recent Comments
- HootSuite Social Media Management » More Apps, Open API, and the Solution Partner Program ~ News Roundup: [...] mentioned in our HootSuite’s Super Bowl XLVI Social Media Recap, adotas and MediaPost analyzed our
- News about Google Adwords issue #412: [...] ads for AdWords to adCenter and align with industry standards, adCenter has chang
- VB: What exactly makes an ad "high quality"?
- Survey: 39 Percent of Mobile Users Responded to Super Bowl Ads Via Mobile - ADOTAS | Mobile2 | Scoop.it: [...] background-position: 50% 0px; background-color:#222222; background-repeat : no-repeat; }
