Yahoo, eBay Form Broad Partnership, As Predicted; Search The Focal Point

A few days after JPMorgan came out with a report predicting Yahoo-eBay tie-up, well, it happened: the two Internet giants will work together in areas of search and graphical advertising, online payments, a co-branded toolbar, and the opportunity to explore “click-to-call” functionality. The tie-up is more substantial than say the Google-AOL tie up, because of the more complementary nature of Yahoo and eBay.
The specifics will roll out later this year, and will include a testing phase over the next several months, with a plan to achieve full implementation in 2007.
The four major areas:
Search and Advertising: Yahoo will become the exclusive third-party provider of all graphical ads throughout eBay, and sponsored search for “complementary products” on some eBay.com search results pages in the U.S. Not sure what that means..
Paypal: Yahoo will adopt Paypal, allowing customers to pay for Yahoo services through PayPal accounts, besides other options. On the B2B side, Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and other small business services will also be able to pay through Paypal, among others.
Co-Branded eBay Toolbar: As the name says, a co-branded Yahoo-eBay toolbar. Both companies already have toolbars…this one wil be eBay’s, with added Yahoo functionalities.
“Click-to-Call” Advertising Functionality: This one is slightly vague, but potentially lucrative: both will explore developing and deploying “click-to-call” ad technologies on their respective sites in the U.S., accessible by users of both Yahoo Messenger and Skype.
Yahoo and eBay do not expect this relationship to have a material impact on their financial results in 2006.
The release is here.

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