According to knowledgeable sources close to the developments at Yahoo, Marissa Mayer is said to be interested in ending her company’s 10-year search-advertising pact with Microsoft.
The reason is due to Mayer’s desire to reach a similar deal with Google.
Publicly, Mayer hasn’t discussed these plans although we’re told that efforts to curtail the deal with Microsoft have so far been unsuccessful.
“We’re happy with the relationship,” Marissa Mayer, chief executive officer of Yahoo! recently stated, according to Bloomberg. “We have been working really well together.”
Microsoft’s agreement to provide the technology for Yahoo Web searches hasn’t met estimates, prompting Mayer to seek alternatives, the people said. The pact, which expires in 2020, was reached in 2009 by Ballmer and former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz.
Bloomberg asserts that Mayer has already met with representatives of Google – her former employer – who “have agreed verbally upon an alternate search-ad partnership should the arrangement with Microsoft end.”
