Advertising executives have welcomed the Microsoft- Yahoo deal , saying it gives them a shield from the omnipotence of Google , which has a 65% share of the online market.
The deal announced yesterday, which will last for 10 bank data years, will consist of a partial merger where the Bing search engine will be used by both companies, allowing Yahoo to manage the business of the associated terms and strengthen its content offering.
“This is extremely encouraging and brings more balance to the search world,” says Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP . “It’s good for our clients and our agencies and for the regulators.”
"If word gets out that Bing has a lot of volume and pays off a lot, whether it's through higher ROI or through clicks, that's going to be the point where advertisers will decide whether to put some of their budget into Bing," Rob Garner, director of search strategy at the iCrossing agency, told Reuters .
Advertisers, however, remain cautious about what Google might do to prevent the merger, as one possibility is that it will follow Microsoft, which last year appealed to the regulator to examine whether a Google-Yahoo deal was monopolistic in nature.