Microsoft is to take on at least 400 Yahoo employees as part
of the landmarksearch partnership dealannounced by the two firms
last week.
They agreed that an additional 150 Yahoo employees will assist
in providing "transition services", according to documents
published on Yahoo's website.
It has also emerged that Microsoft is to take on at least 400
other Yahoo employees and that Yahoo has built into the search deal
two escape clauses.
Yahoo can walk away from the deal if the combined share of
search queries falls below a set level, or if its revenue per
search drops below a set percentage of Google's.
In addition, documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange
Commission this week revealed that Microsoft will pay Yahoo $50m in
each of the first three years of the 10-year deal to defray
transition costs.
These payments are in on top of Yahoo's projected $275m annual
income gains from the deal, which will see Microsoft take over the
search technology for both companies.
Microsoft will also process the self-service adverts linked to
specified search phases, while Yahoo will handle face-to-face sales
of search adverts for both companies.