Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) has been ordered by the US District Judge Robert Patterson Jr to integrate Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Bing search engine into its product, in Hong Kong and Taiwan, without delaying any further, according to Reuters.
CEO Mayer had some doubts
A court filling obtained by Reuters noted that Laurie Mann, Yahoo Senior Vice President of Search Products was thoughtful as to who will succeed Ballmer. The concern was whether the new CEO will be as committed as Ballmer towards search. Yahoo was at the receiving end in the court ruling where Judge Patterson said that the company was in breach that “established irreparable harm to Microsoft.”
Earlier this year, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer said that 10 year partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft is not running well neither it is generating enough revenue nor acquiring market share as everyone expected. Mayer echoed her concern after the announcement of Steve Ballmer retirement was made.
“One of the points of the alliance is that we collectively want to grow share rather than just trading share with each other,” CEO told earlier.
Agreement with Microsoft
As an outcome to this sluggish performance, Yahoo went on to enter into a “global, non-exclusive contextual advertising deal” with Google. However, Yahoo stayed committed to the deal with Microsoft. The Sunnyvale-based company as per the agreement should transfer its search advertising platform over to Microsoft in its 16 global markets. The issue was related to last two countries where Yahoo has still not integrated Bing.com.
Yahoo bound to follow
Prior to the court ruling, the case was discussed with an arbitrator. Arbitrator gave its ruling in favor of Microsoft following, which Yahoo filed a case in the Southern District of New York. However, the ruling by the arbitrator was held by the court Judge, as well.
Yahoo! will have to follow its commitment to Microsoft whether it wants or not. The company tried to delay the process of integrating Bing search engine when it said that it cannot be done until 2014. However, after the court ruling the integration seems to happen soon.
