Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s agreement to combine their search and search advertising businesses will help achieve the scale and develop the technology needed to bring vigorous competition to search and search advertising.

As part of the 10-year global agreement, Microsoft will integrate Yahoo search technology into its existing search platform, and the newly combined platform will serve both Yahoo’s and Microsoft’s owned and operated sites.

Read more about the Microsoft -Yahoo agreement:

CIO Today

Washington Post

CNET News

ARS Technia

Here are some excerpts from what Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had to say about the agreement:

"This agreement comes with boatloads of value for Yahoo!, our users, and the industry. And I believe it establishes the foundation for a new era of Internet innovation and development.”

-Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz

"Through this agreement with Yahoo!, we will create more innovation in search, better value for advertisers, and real consumer choice in a market currently dominated by a single company. Success in search requires both innovation and scale.”

-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Here’s what others are saying about the deal:

"A lot of advertisers and agencies are going to be interested in this new platform because it's going to create some scale."

- Greg Sterling, Principal Analyst
Sterling Market Intelligence
(CIO Today)

 “This should give Bing the ability to serve up more relevant ads to consumers, and that powers paid search.”

- Christopher Lien, Chief Executive
Marin Software
(New York Times)

"We have a much stronger No. 2, but Google will continue to dominate at least for the foreseeable future.”

-Rob Garner, Director of Search Strategy
iCrossing
(Media Week)

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