According to The Wall Street Journal and Businessweek, Yahoo and
Microsoft are finally on track to strike a deal, a year after Microsoft
expressed interest in acquiring Yahoo.
Under the rumoured plan, Yahoo will no longer focus on its search
engine, and Microsoft's Bing will take over. Advertising will also use
Microsoft's AdCenter technology instead of Yahoo's Panama. However,
Yahoo salespeople will continue selling ads, and could get up to 80
percent of the revenue generated by them. Microsoft, on the other hand,
will gather data on user search and buying habits.
Analysts believe that in the long run, Yahoo won't benefit much from
the fact that its salespeople will control much of the ad sales, as
Microsoft will keep and use the data, and Yahoo will not make money on
unsolicited ads placed via online forms.
The combined market share of Bing and Yahoo could end up near the 30
percent mark, which is still a lot lower than Google's 65 percent.
More
here.