T-Online dropped Overture in favor of Google on August 7, an Overture spokesperson said. Overture believes that the move was a breach of contract, and sued for and won an injunction to have its service reinstated, the spokesperson said.
T-Online was clearly in breach of its contract with Overture, the spokesperson said. Although Overture’s contract is a watertight matter, it would have been preferable to discuss a mutually acceptable solution rather than going to court.
It seems like Overture may merely be delaying the inevitable however. When T-Online made the switch to Google, T-Online executives said a clause in their contract allowed early termination of the deal if Overture was acquired by a competitor.
Overture said in mid-July that Yahoo! Inc would acquire the company for $1.63bn. Yahoo, which has portals in the same markets as T-Online operates it services, could be considered a major competitor.
While Overture’s spokesperson would not comment, and T-Online could not be reached for comment, it appears the injunction may be based on the fact that Overture is legally still independent – Yahoo’s acquisition is not expected to close until later this quarter.
Google and Overture have been battling it out for big-money contracts with high-traffic portals for a couple of years. Overture’s ownership by Yahoo is expected to cause it further problems with clients that also compete with Yahoo.
Source: Computerwire
