Our Long Internet Nightmare Is Over: Yahoo and Microsoft Strike a Deal

Can it be possible the Microsoft-Yahoo saga has finally come to a close? After over a year of backing and forthing, and court visits, and proxy therapists the two sides announced this morning that the long talked-about partnership has come to pass. From the NYT:

Microsoft and Yahoo announced a partnership in Internet search and advertising on Wednesday morning intended to create a stronger rival to the industry powerhouse Google. The Microsoft-Yahoo pact is a measured step that represents a pragmatic division of duties between the two companies instead of the blockbuster deal Microsoft initiated last year, when it bid $47.5 billion to buy Yahoo. That hostile offer was ultimately withdrawn by Microsoft, and its collapse and the uncertain aftermath for the Web company led to a management change and the replacement of its co-founder Jerry Yang by Carol Bartz, an outsider who is now Yahoo’s chief executive.

Under the pact, Microsoft will provide the underlying search technology on Yahoo’s popular Web sites. The deal provides a lift for Microsoft’s recent overhaul of its search engine, renamed Bing, which has won praise and favorable reviews, after years of falling further and further behind Google.

This deal has taken so many twists and turns along the way that the NYT.com has even put together a slide show! Behold.

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