Yahoo shuffled partners for paid search listings in Europe this week, replacing Espotting.com with Overture Services, which it recently acquired. The Web portal said Friday that Overture, its longtime partner for commercial search results in the United States, will now serve up pay-per-click listings for its European division. Espotting, based in the United Kingdom, was its partner this past year. Espotting CEO Daniel Ishag said the company had expected the move and that it does not rely on any one partner. "Over the next couple of months, we will be announcing even more distribution deals," he said.
The switch comes only weeks after Yahoo completed its $1.7 billion acquisition of Pasadena, Calif.-based Overture, part of the Web giant's bid to dominate search and its lucrative marketing component. For Overture, Friday's move should help it expand its distribution network in Europe, which already includes MSN, America Online Europe, Wanadoo, Lycos and Tiscali. It should also help Overture make up for distribution deals it has lost to archrival Google, including pacts with AOL and EarthLink within the United States and with T-Online in Europe.