Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was right: Yahoo is an Internet King Maker: by inking a 10 year search deal with Microsoft yesterday Yahoo has opted out of the search battle, and given Microsoft the opportunity to take on Google in the domain where Google is most dominant. Yahoo will host Microsoft's recently launched search bing on its Owned & Operated (O&O) sites, give its search technology to Microsoft and replace its Panama advertising platform with Microsoft's AdCenter. Readers will remember that until they parted ways in 2004, Yahoo search was powered by Google, giving the startup a significant leg up, and access to web users. Now it's Microsofts turn to benefit at the expense of Yahoo Search. Jobs Bartz said yesterday that once the deal is operational, many Yahoo Search employees will be asked to take jobs at Microsoft, some will be moved to the Display advertising business that Yahoo has chosen to focus on, and some will be made redundant. The Transition The transition is expected to take 2.5 years, once regulatory approval is received, expected early 2010. A combined team of Microsoft and Yahoo executives will jointly execute a transition to bing. "We'll begin with major markets including US, and the transition should take 3-6 months, and plan migration to all migration to all advertisers from Panama to adcenter in about 12 months," Bartz said during a joint conference call yesterday. What Microsoft Gets Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that the company will invest a few hundred million dollars…
