EU Approval of Yahoo-Microsoft Search Deal Expected This Week
Conventional wisdom has it that the European Commission (EC) will approve the proposed Microsoft and Yahoo search deal later this week. Under this deal, Microsoft's Bing search engine would replace the Yahoo search engine on the Yahoo website. Users will not be able to tell the difference, however, since the Yahoo search engine will keep its current look while Microsoft provides the search results behind the scenes. For this arrangement, Microsoft has agreed to pay Yahoo 88% of what it costs to bring in the traffic generated on its site for the first five years of the ten-year deal.
The EC has until February 19th to vote on the deal, which is widely expected to pass without concessions. This would put pressure on the U.S. Department of Justice to approve the deal, which is currently under investigation. If the deal is passed, the new Yahoo-Microsoft search engine will control 28% of the search market, making it a distant second to Google's 65%.
