Yahoo May Do Full Rollout of Google Ads Next Week; Could Include Non-Exclusive Ads on Competitors
By Rafat Ali - Thu 01 May 2008 05:08 PM PST
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which was waiting for the other shoe to drop, is still waiting, but it is moving ahead with its plans to deploy Google’s (NSDQ: GOOG) search/text ads more widely across its network after a two week trial. The rollout could start within a week, reports WSJ, citing sources. Microsoft’s (NSDQ: MSFT) hostile bid, or a raised bid offer, could come as soon as tomorrow morning (Friday AM two months ago was when it announced the original takeover offer), and Yahoo may still go ahead with the rollout irrespective.
And while any broad GOOG-YHOO deal would be ripe for anti-trust scrutiny (DOJ has already been knocking), the options could include a nonexclusive arrangement that the two companies believe could satisfy regulators, the story says, and as it explain it: it would be a real-time auction system that would choose the most lucrative ads for any given consumer query from among those sold by Yahoo, Google and any of their competitors. Microsoft, for example, could be that competitor, and have search ads it sold displayed alongside Yahoo Web search results, and share ad revenues. It would all be a Google world, then...rest would just be living off it. Not that we’re that far away now…
Analyst estimates put Yahoo’s cash pop on outsourcing the ads to be more than $1 billion a year. The story points out that within Google, there are mixed feelings on helping Yahoo fend off its bigger rival Microsoft.
Posted in: Advertising, Companies, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo
