SAN FRANCISCO: Fresh from a failed courtship with Microsoft, Yahoo on Thursday rushed into Google's arms in the hope an alliance will improve its sagging fortunes and quell a rebellion by stockholders.
Yahoo and Google announced a deal to put the Internet search king's expertise to work pumping money from advertising posted next to Yahoo Internet search results.
Google and Yahoo began discussing an alliance in early February, shortly after Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo, said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
"The most entertaining conversations were those that took place in buildings that Yahoo owns in unknown and unfindable locations," Schmidt said during a conference call with analysts and reporters.
Google co-founder Larry Page and other executives arrived on bicycles for clandestine meetings in covert locations, Schmidt added.
Schmidt said it was during the past few weeks that he and Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang had "serious conversations" and teams spent sleepless nights pulling together a deal inked on Thursday.
Google co-founder Serge Brin said it is "very exciting" to be working with Yahoo and its founders David Filo and Yang, whose time as students at Stanford University overlapped that of Brin and Page.
"We share quite a history and culture," Brin said. "It was David Filo and Jerry Yang that encouraged us to start a company that, in turn, became Google."
Brin said a priority is ensuring that Yahoo remains "a strong independent company."
Yahoo hopes the alliance will appease stockholders angry that board members rejected Microsoft's bid, which offered an attractive premium on the market value.
Billionaire corporate raider Carl Icahn has been amassing Yahoo shares in a campaign to overthrow the Yahoo board for rejecting a Microsoft takeover.
"This agreement provides a source of funds to both deliver financial value to stockholders from search monetization and to invest in our broader strategy," said Yahoo president Sue Decker said.
More details at TOI
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