MSN and Yahoo’s Overture Extend Paid Search Relationship
Yahoo’s Overture is going to continue to serve ads on MSN Search for the next 18 months. Overture today announced that they have extended its sponsored search distribution relationship with Microsoft Corp. in the United States and internationally through June 2006.
Under the terms of the extension, Overture will continue to provide its sponsored search results to MSN sites in the U.S. and Canada, Europe and Asia. The previous agreement ran through June 2005. “Overture has been a strategic partner of MSN since 2001, and we look forward to continuing our productive relationship,” said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president for the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division at Microsoft. “We are pleased that our collaboration has helped grow the online ad industry and benefited consumers and advertisers in the process.”
Overture’s industry-leading global distribution network includes major Web portals, ISPs and other heavily trafficked destination sites. Overture’s search listings are generated by the company’s advertisers who bid for placement on keywords relevant to their business.
“MSN is a valued industry partner and we are pleased to extend our successful relationship in the U.S. and around the world,” said Ted Meisel, president of Overture. “We appreciate the vote of confidence from MSN and we look forward to working with them on innovative sponsored search solutions.”
MSN recently put its new search engine technology into beta preview. The new MSN search engine has renewed competition of search from the big two, Google and Yahoo, to the big two and a half – Google, Yahoo, and MSN. As MSN Search popularity grows, so will the distribution of Overture sponsored link ads.
