The days of typing O-V-E-R to grab a stock quote for Overture? They are O-V-E-R. Yahoo!
The ceremony may have been more of a shotgun wedding; after all, Overture was starting to account for a disturbing amount of Yahoo!'s bottom line. Pay-per-click searches, where advertisers bid on how much they are willing to pay for relevant search-related traffic, has become big business. It has practically single-handedly revived the hopes of high traffic, content-enabled Internet destinations.
But after watching Microsoft
In fact, about the only real estate Yahoo! is assured of securing in terms of providing targeted text ads through Overture is its own, plus Overture's dowry of AltaVista and AllTheWeb.com.
Distribution matters. That's why, when the market slammed Overture for its acquisition of AltaVista back in February, we applauded it. The Overture shares retired last night had appreciated 57% since the AltaVista purchase was first revealed.
So while Overture may be a vital piece in the Yahoo! jigsaw puzzle, Overture also gets a sugar daddy in terms of distribution. The nuptials may have been rushed, but there's no reason not to believe that these two will be living happily ever dot-com after.