Looking to grab eyeballs and shoppers for its paying merchant partners, comparison shopping technology play DealTime has struck a deal to power portions of the iWon.com shopping channel.

For DealTime, which competes directly with comparison-shopping heavyweights MySimon.com and Buy.com, the strategy to team up with iWon comes as Web portals are looking for alternative revenues to stay alive.

With advertising and sponsorship dollars drying up, Web portals such as iWon are turning to partnerships with lead-generation companies like DealTime to set up fresh ways to monetize traffic for e-commerce dollars.

While specific financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed, DealTime's VP of business development Curt Cimei said the partnership would help put products from merchant partners before millions of new online bargain hunters visiting iWon's site.

DealTime, which maintains dual headquarters in New York and Israel, said a private label version of its software has been integrated into the main product categories and product search feature of iWon's shopping channel.

Although the company has a technology licensing deal with America Online to make referrals to AOL's merchant partners, the iWon deal is the first time DealTime is putting products from its own paying merchants on a third-party portal.

Typically, DealTime gets a per-lead fee from its 300 e-commerce partners. The company's software allows users to compare prices on everything from digital cameras to CDs and flowers.

At its consumer site, DealTime's users can search for an item, and the site lists options and links directly to the merchant's site. DealTime counts big-name merchants like Gateway, Amazon.com, Delta and Intel among its clients.

DealTime, which refiled for a $50 million IPO last December is backed by Bertelsman, AOL/Time Warner, Bank of America and Singapore Telecom. Bertelsmann owns a majority stake. The company employs about 300 at locations in New York, Israel, San Francisco, London, Germany and Japan.