Will Ninemsn and Yahoo7 be affected by Microsoft and Yahoo’s search deal?

Ninemsn and Yahoo7 are unsure about how the advertising partnership between parent companies Microsoft and Yahoo will affect Australian operations.

Yahoo7 said in a statement it is currently investigating how the partnership will work locally.

“These kinds of deals can take months to finalise and years to roll out. We are currently working through what this means for the Australian market, until then it is business as usual.”

A spokesperson for Ninemsn said there is no information on how the deal will be rolled out and for now, the company will continue to operate as per usual. “As soon as we get the information from the US we’ll share it with the relevant stakeholders.”

Additionally, Ninemsn chief executive Joe Pollard has released a statement that gave no information on how the deal, which will see Yahoo use the Microsoft Bing search engine as well as handle all the partners’ advertising, will affect Australian operations.

“Since the global launch of Bing just two months ago, Ninemsn has put in place ambitious plans to grow Bing in the Australian search market. We believe that successfully competing in search requires a combination of innovation, scale and an unmoving focus on satisfying the needs of the online consumer,” Pollard said.

“The new Microsoft and Yahoo deal will have a positive effect on Bing’s trajectory. Although we are still very much in the early stages of collaboration, the deal will provide more consumers and advertisers with an innovative and engaging search alternative, which is a great thing for the Australian market,” he said.

The deal will likely take a number of months to be approved by US regulators, with the partnership expected to be in full swing by 2010.