The much awaited Google – Yahoo deal has been finally approved by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission, the regulator that investigated the partnership. Under this deal, Yahoo Japan will be utilizing the search and advertising technology of Google by the end of this year. The petition for assessment of this tie-up was filed by Rakuten a few months back. Rakuten is a close competitor of Yahoo Japan, and wanted the Fair Trade Commission to fully review this deal.
Currently, Yahoo Japan holds over 50 per cent of market share in Japanese internet search services, while Google has a smaller 40 per cent share. After complete assessment by the regulator, the deal was approved with the caution that they’d be on the lookout for any possible violations.
Back in July, the announcement of this deal escalated the market value of Yahoo Japan, raising its stock to 1.7 per cent. Instead of Microsoft Bing, Google will be empowering Yahoo Japan’s search engine and expand its share in Japanese market. The credit of this tie-up goes to last year’s announcement of Microsoft ‘s deal with Yahoo.
On the other hand, while Yahoo was partnering with Microsoft for several areas including Bing for Yahoo search, the Google-Yahoo deal proved its profitable. With this search deal with Microsoft, Yahoo wanted to lower down its expenses, focus on other products and revive its stock price.
