Yahoo is expected to further cut ties with search engine Google by selling its stake in Google which was bought when the two Internet destinations partnered to bring Google results to Yahoo search back in 2001. According to Andy Beal’s Search Engine Lowdown and Dow Jones reports, a Yahoo executive said that the search-engine company will eventually sell its stake in Google Inc.
Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker outlined the company’s intention at a meeting with analysts last Thursday. Decker valued the stake at several hundred million dollars, however gave no timeline for a sale. Yahoo invested $10 million in Google under a four-year-old pact, now ended, in which Google provided it search services. Google filed for a $2.7 billion IPO last month.
At the same analyst meeting, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel also set the foundation of Yahoo’s new direction in advancing both search and email. Yahoo executives say they are working on 50 different search projects but provided only a rough outline of them. The focus of these search projects lies on Increasing relevancy, enhancing local and personalized search, providing access to a bigger index of Web pages and providing more frequent updates were all listed as priorities.
Furthermore, Yahoo is also aiming its advancements at challenging Google’s GMail. Yahoo Mail will begin to offer “virtually unlimited storage” for its paid e-mail customers and will upgrade free users to 100MB, Senior Vice President Jim Brock added during Thursday’s meeting.
