Yahoo gets better deal than originally reported

Jake Widman
Thursday, 06 August 2009 04:01

Business IT - Technology

Initial reports of the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal made it sound like Microsoft got by far the better of the deal, but new document filings show that Yahoo is getting more than was first announced.

The long-awaited deal was first announced a little less than a week ago.

The announcement that day talked about Yahoo receiving consideration in the form of search revenue sharing in return for using Microsoft's Bing engine for Yahoo searches.

Observers at the time thought that sounded a little one-sided, especially since Microsoft had originally offered to buy Yahoo outright for US$45 billion.

As it turns out, Yahoo's getting more out of the deal than originally reported

A Yahoo filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that Microsoft agreed to also pay Yahoo $50 million a year for three years to help with "transition and implementation costs."

Microsoft will also provide Yahoo an 18-month guarantee in each country on gross revenue per search.

For more on the deal, see Page 2.