Microsoft and Yahoo! finally announce search deal

Microsoft (MSFT) has finally managed to bring Yahoo! (YHOO) into an Internet search partnership. In a press release, Yahoo! says that Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to its core search technologies and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing Web search platforms (This post was updated at 8:45 am after Yahoo! and Microsoft issued a press release confirming the deal).

The deal would give Microsoft roughly 28 percent of the total search engine market. In theory, this added scale will make it easier to do battle with Google (GOOG), the still growing behemoth of the space. Apparently, Advertising Age or the AllThingsD blog at The Wall Street Journal originally broke the story.