After months of speculation, several media reports say that a deal to create a joint venture on search between Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) may be announced as early as today.
Details of the transaction make the much-anticipated partnership seem immensely complex, which could undermine its future. Many analysts had expected Yahoo! to get up-front cash payments for putting its search business together with Microsoft's. That will not happen. The two firms will split the revenue from ads sold on their sites. Microsoft's Bing search technology will be the platform for the venture, but Yahoo! will sell the ads.
In a word, the deal seems like a complicated mess.
The only thing that is certain is the a relationship between the two companies would give them close to 30% of the U.S. search market -- probably may not enough to hurt Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), which has nearly 65%.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.
Will Rich Ross really have a positive impact on Disney's movie operations?
Consumers sick of recession, may spend extra on holidays
Corrections, seasonality and Santa Claus
