Microsoft and Yahoo were supposed to have signed a final deal for their joint advertising venture on Oct. 27, but that deadline came and went without an agreement. The companies told the Securities and Exchange Commission in a filing, “Given the complex nature of the transaction, there remain some details to be finalized.” The statement added: “The parties are working diligently on finalizing the arrangements, have made good progress to date, and have agreed to execute the agreements as expeditiously as possible.”
Does the delay mean there’s some trouble in the unlikely marriage of the two competitors? Probably not, notes Greg Sterling, whose firm, Sterling Market Research, focuses on search-engine marketing. “There are a lot of details to be worked out, there’s a lot at stake in getting this done,” he explained. “The parties are likely still trying to work out some thorny issues.”
Picking Out ‘Thorns’
What kind of issues might prove to be “thorny”? For one thing, there may yet be confusion over who owns what clients. “Yahoo is going to sell these big accounts, but it will be Microsoft’s AdCenter platform that delivers the ads,” Sterling said. “Any agencies doing self-service will go directly to Microsoft, even though they may be representing Yahoo clients. This may be where there’s some areas of conflict.”
Another potential problem area may be mobile search. When the deal was announced in July, cooperation between the companies was left open-ended, Sterling said. Yahoo was to have an option but not a requirement to use AdCenter for mobile search.
“Mobile is now regarded as much more important than it was even a few months ago,” Sterling said. “With all of the stuff around [Google’s mobile operating system] Android, Google is consolidating their undisputed leadership of mobile, so both Yahoo and Microsoft may be scrutinizing mobile…