Yahoo shares rose in intraday trading Monday on reports that the
company is in preliminary talks for an advertising partnership with
Microsoft.
Yahoo's stock was up as much as 7.6 percent to $14.49 in early morning
trading, a level it hasn't seen since early October. Yahoo's gains also
went against the tide of the broader markets, which were down in
morning trading.
The bump in Yahoo's share price follows reports on Friday that the Internet search pioneer has had discussions with Microsoft recently about such a deal.
Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly remains focused on a search advertising deal with Yahoo, but one that only goes so far and falls short of his previous attempts to acquire the entire company.
Nonetheless, investors apparently were pleased at the notion the
two companies are at least sitting down and speaking with each other
about a search advertising deal or partnership.
The reported talks come at a time when Microsoft and Yahoo are seeking ways to narrow the gap with Google, who has a substantial lead over its competitors.
Google's slice of the U.S.paid search advertising market is
expected to perform on par or better than Wall Street expects when it
reports its first quarter results on Thursday, according to a research
report released Monday by an Oppenheimer & Co. analyst.
In his research report, analyst Jason Helfstein notes:
We believe the Street expects U.S. paid clicks to decline; however,
third-party data suggests first quarter U.S. paid clicks increased 10
percent year over year, and coupled with recent cost initiatives,
should result in upside to our and Street estimates.
Helfstein noted he expects Google to report a five percent
year-over-year decline in first quarter paid click revenues, while
third-party data indicates a 10 percent increase in year-over-year paid
click revenues.
Shares of Google rose a modest 1.8 percent to $379.10 a share
in intraday trading Monday, while the broader markets remained under
pressure.
