Yahoo and AT&T have finalised a deal and announced a new partnership. The telecoms company will sell Yahoo’s Display Ad Inventory using its 5000 strong sales team. The target market is local business and industry.

“Local businesses are looking to drive in-store traffic, and our alliance with AT&T Interactive will help them reach a local audience of highly-engaged potential customers on Yahoo!,” said Jim Schinella, Senior Vice President, North America Region, Yahoo!. “As local businesses shift their advertising spend to reach the growing number of Internet consumers, AT&T Interactive and Yahoo! can equip them with the tools and expertise they need to be successful online.” A Yahoo representative said.

AT&T “Our local advertisers are focused on growing their business so they look to us to help find the most comprehensive and effective ways to reach consumers,” said Matt Crowley, Chief Marketing Officer, AT&T Interactive. “Adding Yahoo!’s reach through highly targeted display advertising enhances our existing portfolio of local advertising products, allows our advertisers another way to raise their visibility and reach more online consumers. This joint effort is a natural extension of our existing relationship with Yahoo! and takes advantage of each company’s assets in the local market.”

This is not the first time Yahoo has brokered a deal to promote and develop a product. Yahoo Local is currently powered by Yellow Pages and offers a very valuable service to its users.

This last month has seen a big shift in Yahoo’s ongoing business development strategy, but why are they making so many changes?

So far this month we have reported about rumoured talks between Yahoo and Microsoft, the potential sale of Yahoo HotJobs, the launch of a new Yahoo home page and the possibility of selling Yahoo Search. So what is really happening and why this sudden reduction in Yahoo’s assets? It’s difficult to say but it does look like Yahoo is completely refocusing its direction and changing the fabric of its business. We will have to wait and see if the rumours are correct or just more internet Hot Air.

Article by Creative SEO – Search Engine Marketing