Yahoo!, Google announce ad partnership

SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 12 (UPI) -- Yahoo! Inc. and Google Inc. have agreed to a plan in which Google-brokered ads will appear with some Yahoo! search results, the Los Angeles Times said Thursday.

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., announced the deal following the end of talks with Microsoft Corp.

Microsoft had announced earlier in the day it and Yahoo! had broken off talks on "an alternative transaction" following the collapse of talks two weeks on a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo!

In a statement, Yahoo!, said the deal with Google could be worth an additional $800 million in its annual revenue.

In addition to Google-brokered ads appearing along with some Yahoo! search results, such ads would also appear on some of Yahoo!'s Web pages.

Yahoo! said the deal is non-exclusive, so it is free to reach similar agreements with other ad providers, the newspaper reported.

The companies said they would wait 3 ½ months before inaugurating the new arrangement to give the Justice Department time to review it, even though they said it did not requite regulatory approval.

Microsoft had been exploring acquisition of Yahoo! as part of a strategy to rival Google in the Web advertising market, but the effort instead led to the new arrangement between Yahoo! and Google, the Times said.