Microsoft and Yahoo! get approval for search deal from U.S. and E.U.

Posted by Erina Lin on February 19, 2010 at 11:30 AM

Microsoft and Yahoo! have received approval for their search agreement from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Union. This will push the search deal aimed at taking share from Google moving forward, Media Post reported.

In a joint announcement Thursday, Microsoft and Yahoo said they will now focus on implementing the deal, which should start in the coming days. Yahoo! will transit its algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, and become the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers worldwide.

The deal aims to provide 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, according to the press release posted on Yahoo! Finance.

Besides traditional vehicles, the two companies will communicate the transition to advertisers through a newly developed Web site www.searchalliance.com. The transition in the Untied States is expected to be done by the end of this year, but may wait until 2011. Other global customers and partners are expected to transition by early 2012.

“This breakthrough search alliance means Yahoo! can focus even more on our own innovative search experience. Yahoo! gets to do what we do best: combine our science and technology with compelling content to build personally relevant online experiences for our users and customers,” said Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz.

Research firm comScore pointed out Google’s search engine market share in U.S. was down to 65.4 percent in January from 65.7 percent, sequentially. Microsoft’s share increased to 11.3 percent from 10.7 percent, and Yahoo’s slipped to 17 percent from 17.3 percent, respectively.

“As Microsoft will only provide the search result listings available through Bing, Yahoo! will still be responsible for creating a unique user experience and competing for audience, engagement, and clicks,” according to J.P. Morgan Analyst Imran Khan in a research note.

“Yahoo!’s sales team will exclusively represent and support high volume advertisers, SEO and SEM agencies, and resellers and their clients, while Microsoft will represent and support self-service advertisers,” Khan added.