Lunch With Yahoo: We Have Plans; Decker: Narrowing Search Rev GapWith Google's Help
This story was written by David Kaplan.
After saving up about three weeks worth of news for one day the addition of 94 local papers to the Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Newspaper Consortium; an agreement to run CBS' (NYSE: CBS) web video; a display deal with Walmart.com; French holding company Havas Digital signing on to its ad exchange; the release of Yahoo Circular, a personalized retail marketing program aimed at consumersYahoo executives hosted a luncheon for a dozen reporters this afternoon to drive home two points: the collapse of the Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) merger notwithstanding, we have plans.
Combining the aspects of a press conference with speed dating, Yahoo president Sue Decker, along with Mike Walrath, SVP, Yahoo Advertiser Marketplace Group, and Todd Teresi SVP, Yahoo Publisher Network, took turns visiting with reporters at four different tables at Bar Americain in New York, a few blocks away from Digital Hollywood's Advertising 2.0 conference. The execs outlined what sort of impact they expect from the deals announced earlier:
-- Decker: We're closing the search gap (slowly): Decker showed no signs of weariness with the questions about what happens now after Microsoft and Yahoo's search partnership with Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Nevertheless, she managed to sidestep questions about next steps, turning the conversation to the day's announcements as proof that Yahoo is moving forward on many other fronts. "It would be one thing if the Microsoft situation happened without a plan. But it's clear we have a lot going on - that's why we have all these announcements." As for Google, Decker said that Yahoo is closing the gap in search revenue with Googlethanks, in a small way, to its recent partnership with Google. However the company still has quite a ways to goit has narrowed the gap to 35 percent lately, which Decker credited to the use of its Panama ad system in addition to its recent test on outsourcing a portion of its search ads to Google's AdSense.
By David Kaplan