Overture and Yahoo Sign Three Year Deal

• Apr. 26, 2002

In a previous Marketing Monitor article, we informed readers of the initiation of a partnership deal between Yahoo, one of the web's most popular search services/portals, and Overture, the current industry leader in "pay-per-click" search services. The partnership was to end in April 2002, apparently just long enough for Yahoo to judge the service before committing to a longer term deal.

Apparently, Yahoo executives are pleased with the results, as April 25 saw the announcement of a three year extension of the partnership. We can assume that there was a significant revenue stream provided to both partners, thus meaning that people are clicking on the Overture listings displayed at Yahoo. There had been rumors that Yahoo had plans to unveil its own pay-per-click service, but these plans seem to have been put on hold. This confirms that Overture is indeed a powerful online advertising solution, and one that can't be ignored.

Overture has also extended its contract with AOL, which was originally scheduled to expire on March 31. The partnership will now hold until May 1, apparently to allow more time for negotiations. This is the second extension of the partnership.

Darren Downey