Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL Join Forces in Advertising

Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL Join Forces in Advertising

Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL are to go into partnership in online advertising, in an effort to better compete in a market currently dominated by Facebook (16%) and Google (9%). The deal, which is to begin in January 2012, will allow the companies to sell each others’ unreserved premium online advertising space.

Although the three companies will remain in competition with each other, maintaining their own sales forces and controls, they see this move as an efficient means to save costs and add value by adding broader reach and improved yield for brand advertisers and publishers.

Executives from Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft have said they do not expect any problems from the Department of Justice, which could in theory condemn the partnership for reducing competition or affecting ad pricing, under “anti-trust” rules.

Before this partnership, analysts had predicted that these three companies were set to lose share against the improving performances of Facebook and Google.

[Market share figures by eMarketer].