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Yahoo filed a copy of its search-advertising agreement with Google this afternoon as an exhibit to its quarterly report to the SEC. However, the public version of the 50-page document has been heavily redacted to remove information that the company says it considers confidential.
Particularly intriguing is Section 3, starting on page 19, labeled "Other Business Opportunities." It contains four subsections, each of them presumably describing another business opportunity between the companies, beyond the search-advertising deal. However, three of the four have been redacted entirely. The fourth opportunity, instant-messaging interoperability, has already been disclosed.
I've left a message with a Yahoo spokesman, hoping to find out more, and I'll update this post depending on the response.
Under the deal between the companies, ads from Google's lucrative system would appear next to selected Yahoo search results. Yahoo struck the agreement as an alternative to Microsoft's acquisition bid.
Google and Yahoo are waiting to implement the deal pending a U.S. Justice Department review, although the companies say they don't believe it requires regulatory approval. Microsoft has opposed the agreement on antitrust grounds, because it effectively joins the No. 1 and No. 2 search companies. Yahoo and Google say the deal is non-exclusive, potentially letting Microsoft do something similar with Yahoo.
CNet News.com reported on the filing earlier this afternoon.
During a Congressional hearing last month, Yahoo and Google were chided by U.S. Rep. John Conyers for not allowing him or his staff to see the agreement unless they went to a lawyer's office to view it, promised not to take notes, and signed a non-disclosure deal.
The L.A. Times reported at the time that Conyers said the committee "was given more ready access to the documents surrounding the president's terrorist surveillance program."
Incidentally, Conyers also had a jab for Microsoft during that hearing -- saying in response to its antitrust objections that he "never felt so sorry for poor, little old Microsoft."
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