Move.com, a newly-launched portal for
relocations, Thursday agreed to pay AltaVista Company $40 million over
three years in exchange for the creation of a co-branded real estate channel.
The deal pairs the Cendant
Corp., the owner of move.com and the Century 21 and Coldwell
Banker brands, and CMGI, which is the
majority owner of AltaVista.Cendant isn’t a newbie in the online world,
having launched Rent Net, an online apartment guide.
Since move.com has just launched, this agreement gives it a jump-start as
it tries to build traffic and brand recognition. The company hopes to
leverage Cendant’s offline expertise into helping consumers with everything
from finding a new home, to changing over utility service, to the move itself.
The deal calls for move.com to be the exclusive content provider to the new
real estate channel carried on the AltaVista Live! personalized portal
service. AltaVista will promote the co-branded channel as well as move.com
throughout its network of services — AltaVista Search, AltaVista Shopping.com and
AltaVista Live! The network had 47 million users in December.
The co-branded channel is expected to debut in several months.