Search Engine Land
  • SEO
    • > All SEO
    • > What Is SEO?
    • > SEO Periodic Table
    • > Google: SEO
    • > Bing SEO
    • > Google Algorithm Updates
  • PPC
    • > All PPC
    • > What is PPC?
    • > Google Ads
    • > Microsoft Ads
    • > The Periodic Tables of PPC
  • Focuses
    • > Local
    • > Commerce
    • > Shopify SEO Guide
    • > Content
    • > Email Marketing Periodic Table
    • > Social Media Marketing
    • > Analytics
    • > Search Engine Land Awards
    • > All Focuses
  • SMX
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • About
    • > About Search Engine Land
    • > Newsletter
    • > Third Door Media
    • > Advertise

Processing...Please wait.

Search Engine Land » Channel » Content » Renegotiating Search Deal, Yahoo And Microsoft Extend Deadline

Renegotiating Search Deal, Yahoo And Microsoft Extend Deadline

Negotiations likely to yield new terms for Search Alliance.

Greg Sterling on March 30, 2015 at 10:09 am

yahoo-bing1-fade-1920

According to a Reuters report, Yahoo and Microsoft have extended a negotiating deadline as they try to determine the form their search partnership may take over the next five years. The original deal was crafted during a different time by different CEOs.

Even though the original agreement was for a period of ten years, apparently after five years the contract allows for a renegotiation or exit. This original contract was signed by the companies in 2010. According to Reuters, which reviewed a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the deadline has been extended from February 23 to roughly the end of April.

The Search Alliance, as the Yahoo-Microsoft relationship is called, has underperformed expectations — especially for Yahoo. The two companies’ combined share of the US search market has remained basically flat for the past five years, hovering between 29 and 31 percent. However Bing has grown its share, mostly at Yahoo’s expense.

Current Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who inherited the Search-Alliance deal from former CEO Carol Bartz, has been openly critical of it. She has tried with some success to reinvigorate search and paid-search advertising at Yahoo outside of the Search Alliance framework. Most recently Yahoo captured the US “default” search slot from Google on the Firefox browser and saw a bump in marketshare, some of which has now been given back.

Despite Mayer’s criticism of the Search Alliance, I would be surprised if the company completely abandoned of the deal. Doing so would probably require many millions of dollars of additional investments to recreate what existed before Yahoo turned search over to Microsoft. Yahoo’s institutional investors would also probably balk at the move.

For its part, Microsoft is somewhat less dependent on Yahoo traffic today than it was in 2010 when Bing was in third place. Both parties may thus have incentives to alter the terms of the deal.

It’s not clear what the deadline extension says about the state of negotiations. However I suspect we will see some different terms emerge and changes in the relationship.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


New on Search Engine Land

    SEO reporting to impress: How to successfully report your SEO process, efforts and result

    9 ways to become an SEO problem-solver

    More FAQ rich results being displayed in Google Search

    Webinar: Benchmark your social media performance for a competitive edge

    Google releases May 2022 broad core update

About The Author

Greg Sterling
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

Related Topics

BingContentSEO

Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS

The SMX Conference logo.

Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes (virtual)

June 14-15, 2022: SMX Advanced (virtual)

November 15-16, 2022: SMX Next (virtual)

Learn More About Our SMX Events

The MarTech Conference logo.

Discover time-saving technologies and actionable tactics that can help you overcome crucial marketing challenges.

Start Discovering Now: Spring (virtual)

September 28-29, 2022: Fall (virtual)

Learn More About Our MarTech Events

Webinars

Benchmark Your Social Media Performance For a Competitive Edge

Take a Crawl, Walk, Run Approach to Multi-Channel ABM

Content Comes First: Transform Your Operations With DAM

See More Webinars

Intelligence Reports

Enterprise SEO Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Identity Resolution Platforms

Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Sales Enablement Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Digital Experience Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Call Analytics Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports

White Papers

The State of Influencer Pricing

How to Measure Influencer Performance

Reputation Management For Healthcare Organizations

Unlock the App Marketing Potential of QR Codes

Realising the power of virtual events for demand generation

See More Whitepapers

Receive daily search news and analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • SEO
  • PPC

Our Events

  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX
  • MarTech

About

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS
  • Youtube

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.