The three companies will begin selling ad inventory on each other's service/sites in an effort to increase their share of ad spending.
Each also hopes to get larger Web properties to share their ad inventory, as well.
For now, the deal is for "Class 2" display inventory (aka graphic ads that need to be handed over to ad networks to sell) but could be extended.
WSC explains that if, for example, "Microsoft were to receive a big order for a certain kind of ad impression, it would fill that order with its own inventory as well as with what’s available form its partners, AOL and Yahoo." The new partners would then share the revenue and take a larger cut than if a third-party had done it.
Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 15 Sep 2011 13:46