Microsoft renews Yahoo search revenue guarantee for another year

One of the tricks that Microsoft used to get Yahoo to agree to use Bing search results for the Yahoo search engine was a revenue guarantee. That revenue guarantee expired on March 31. However, Reuters reports that Microsoft has now agreed to extend that revenue guarantee.

The new revenue guarantee between Microsoft and Yahoo went into effect on April 1 according to a filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The extension in the revenue guarantee for Yahoo comes as Yahoo was reportedly looking for an exit from the underperforming partnership.

The revenue guarantee agreement marks the first major agreement between Yahoo and Microsoft since Marissa Mayer took over the CEO spot with Yahoo. So far, Mayer has criticized search partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo that was initially started by former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz.

The search partnership itself between Yahoo and Microsoft was started in 2010 and has a 10-year lifespan. The goal of the partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft was to help Microsoft dethrone Google in the search engine wars. The partnership has yet to help Microsoft and Yahoo compete with Google.

[via Reuters]