Yahoo! and Amazon.com today said they are expanding their electronic commerce alliance to further their worldwide merchant program.
Under terms of the agreement, Amazon.com becomes the premier book merchant
on several international Yahoo! sites, including Yahoo! in Asia, UK &
Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia & New
Zealand, Japan and Korea. Amazon.com merchant buttons will be displayed on
these sites and other world sites to be announced within the next few months.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
In what marks a busy day for Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), it was also announced that the company is taking the place of MCI Communications Corp. in the NASDAQ 100 Index following WorldCom Inc.’s acquisition of MCI.
Yahoo! also announced today that it is launching an enhanced version of its Yahoo! Get Local property guide. The company said it has incorporated content from Yahoo! Metros into the guide, and will provide domestic and international information such as news, weather, white pages and community information.
Under today’s expanded Amazon agreement, Internet book buyers will be able to access English-language book titles within book categories and related keywords in the Yahoo! World sites. In addition, Amazon.com will become the local merchant for Yahoo! Germany and will provide German users with German-language direct links within the site. Currently Amazon is Yahoo!’s premier bookseller for Yahoo! UK and Ireland providing English-language books and local customer and delivery services.
“This agreement with Yahoo!, combined with our local presence in Germany
and the United Kingdom, strengthens our position around the world as a leading global book merchant,” said David Risher, senior vice president at Amazon.com, in a statement.
Early morning traders on Wall Street appeared to favor the alliance with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) up more than 3 points after a week
of steady losses. Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) also saw a rebound, up more than 4
points early today.
