SANFRANSISCO: Yahoo! and Microsoft have announced that they have finalized the details of their planned Internet search and advertising partnership. The companies hope to implement the deal next year with the approval of anti-trust regulators. “Yahoo! and Microsoft welcome the broad support the deal has received from key players in the advertising industry and remain hopeful that the closing of the transaction can occur in early 2010,” the companies said in a joint statement yesterday. Yahoo! and Microsoft had originally planned to complete their agreement by October 27. However, the extended talks “given the complex nature of the transaction.” The plan to ink a 10-year Web search and advertising pact was unveiled in July. It promises to set the stage for a Yahoo!-Microsoft offensive against Google, the king of the lucrative search and advertising market. Under the no-cash deal, Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine on its own sites. Yahoo! will provide the exclusive global sales force for premium search advertisers. Microsoft’s tie-up with Yahoo! gives the companies a larger share of the Web search market. However, analysts are divided on how much it will actually deliver in making inroads against powerhouse Google. Google is the overwhelming leader in a Web search and advertising market which the research firm Forrester estimates will grow by 15 per cent a year to more than $30 billion in 2014 in the United States alone. Forrester analyst Rebecca Jennings was among those who said the agreement, under which Yahoo! will use Microsoft’s new Bing search engine and handle Web ad sales, would boost both companies. “This deal should help convince even the most stubborn budget-holder that spreading their money outside of Google would be beneficial,” she said. Analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon Valley’s Enderle Group agreed, saying that many advertisers were “nervous” about Google’s dominance and “would just as soon not do business with Google.”