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April 10, 2007

Today, Viacom has said it has selected Yahoo to provide search functionality for thirty-three of its Web sites in a major push for Panama, Yahoo's new Internet ad system.

Yahoo's new Panama search platform was launched in early February, and is perceived as a major test of the company's ability to offer Internet advertisers a competing technology to search leader Google.

For its part, Viacom said the multiyear advertising partnership with Yahoo covers broadband sites for its MTV, VH-1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon networks, and could expand to well over 140 additional Web sites globally.

With Panama, Yahoo will provide search tools and serve contextual text ads, which utilize data on what a user is looking at online.

Gaude Lydia Paez, a Yahoo spokeswoman declined to comment on financial terms of the transaction with Viacom.

"It's our typical revenue-sharing deal that we use with most of our partners," Paez said. "It is exclusive, and it is for many years," she added.

In other developments, on March 13, Viacom sued Google and its video-sharing site YouTube for $1 billion, for failing to protect its copyrighted entertainment from being placed online without authorization.

Shares of Viacom edged lower on the New York Stock Exchange today, while shares of Yahoo rose nearly 1 percent on the Nasdaq electronic system.

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Source: CNN Money