Like Yahoo’s Deterioration, Discussions With Microsoft “Ongoing”
by John Paczkowski
Posted on June 4, 2008 at 9:43 AM PT
Yahoo (YHOO) is unsealing new advertising deals nearly as quickly as that Delaware court is unsealing the ” unflattering” details of the company’s failed merger talks with Microsoft (MSFT).
During her keynote at the Advertising 2.0 conference in New York today, Yahoo President Sue Decker (pictured above with Jerry Yang) announced the company’s latest online advertising initiatives, among them a multiyear video and display ad deal with Walmart.com (WMT), a global partnership with interactive agency Havas Digital (which will be an early adopter of the company’s AMP platform), an agreement with CBS (CBS) that will see the network’s programming added to the Yahoo TV lineup, and a new newspaper marketing program called Yahoo Circular, which allows retailers to deliver “personalized” newspaper circulars to Yahoo users.
Amazing how the fear of a hostile takeover can motivate a company, isn’t it?
Notably absent from this smorgasbord of partnerships: a deal with Microsoft, which these days seems the only thing that will appease the company’s irate shareholders. That said, such a deal could still be in the works. During an appearance on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” today, Decker said Yahoo remains “engaged” in “ongoing” discussions with Microsoft. “What I said today, I think is pretty consistent with what [Microsoft CEO] Steve Ballmer said last week at the D Conference … which is that Microsoft has indicated that it’s in discussions with us about various partnerships,” she explained. “I can’t comment on the specifics of any kind of discussions.”
