Search Engine Optimisation, Promotion and Internet Marketing

Google and Yahoo settle disputes

10 August 2004

Search giants Yahoo and Google have announced that they have resolved two disputes that had been pending.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Google will take a license for US Patent No. 6,269,361 and several related patents held by Yahoo subsidiary Overture.

Yahoo has now dismissed its patent lawsuit against Google and the two parties have also resolved a dispute regarding shares issuable to Yahoo under a warrant to purchase Google shares in connection with a 2000 services agreement.

In connection with the settlement Google has issued shares of its Class A common stock to Yahoo. Google increased the number of shares it will offer in its initial public offering (IPO) later this month from 24.6 million to 25.7 million, in order to include the extra shares allotted to Yahoo to pay for a technology license.

As a result of the settlement, Google said it will post a net loss in the quarter to end September, as a result of the non-cash settlement of between $260 million and $290 million.

Internet portal Yahoo will reportedly sell most of its shares from the settlement, leaving it with a 4.1 per cent stake in Google, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Google's eagerly-awaited IPO is being conducted through an auction process and could raise as much as $3.3 billion.

Apply for your free web assessment - get a complete health check and optimisation action plan from Weboptimiser, the experts.

Leading brand search engine marketing since 1996

Founded in 1996 as an SEO company, Weboptimiser is today one of the Internet marketing sector's best-known and most respected search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) search engine marketing companies.

With a unique portfolio of brand-friendly services, including usability, contextual advertising and web analytics, a pioneering methodology that covers all 4 stages of interaction between a web site and its visitors, we make our clients sites faster, smarter, busier and more profitable.