Full Description

Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo!), incorporated in 1995, together with its consolidated subsidiaries, is a global Internet brand. Together with its owned and operated online properties and services (Yahoo! Properties or Owned and Operated sites), the Company also provides its advertising offerings and access to Internet users beyond Yahoo! through its distribution network of third-party entities (Affiliates), who have integrated its advertising offerings into their Websites, referred to as Affiliate sites, or their other offerings. The Company generates revenues by providing marketing services to advertisers across a majority of Yahoo! Properties and Affiliate sites. The Company provides services in more than 30 languages and in more than 30 countries, regions, and territories, including localized versions of Yahoo!. Its offerings to users on Yahoo! Properties fall into six categories: Front Doors, Communities, Search, Communications, Audience, and Connected Life.

In November 2008, the Company completed the sale of Kelkoo to Jamplant Ltd. In December 2008, the Company acquired around 30% stake in Info Network Management Company, a Chennai-based, tele-information service provider. In March 2008, the Company announced the expansion of its India Research and development operations with the launch of Yahoo! Labs - Bangalore. On February 12, 2008, the Company completed the acquisition of Maven Networks Inc. (Maven), an online video platform provider.

During the year ended December 31, 2008, the Company Launched the next-generation of Yahoo! Mail, unifying email, instant messaging (IM) and mobile text messaging (SMS). During 2008, it launched mobile offerings, including Yahoo! oneSearch 2.0, a new version of its mobile search service, Yahoo! Go 3.0, a version of its mobile all-in-one application, and Yahoo! oneConnect, which aggregates communications tools such as address book and email on the iPhone. During 2008, it launched APT from Yahoo!, its display advertising platform designed to simplify the process of buying and selling advertisements online. During 2008, it also launched Yahoo! Search BOSS and SearchMonkey.

The Company provides several key starting points where Internet users start their online activity, through such services as the Yahoo! Home Page; Search; and Mail; and through its mobile solutions, such as Yahoo! Go. The Company provides a range of marketing services that make it easier and more effective for advertisers and marketers to reach and connect with users who visit Yahoo! Properties and its Affiliate sites.

Front Doors

The Company’s Front Doors offerings include Yahoo! Front Page, My Yahoo!, and Yahoo! Toolbar. Yahoo! Front Page (www.yahoo.com) is a navigation hub and starting point into Yahoo! Properties where users have the ability to perform a Web search, read the latest news, and find links to other Yahoo! Websites. My Yahoo! is a personalized start page that delivers registered users information of personal interest via a user-customized interface. Yahoo! Toolbar is a Web browser add-on that enables users to conveniently access Yahoo! Properties from anywhere on the Web.

Communities

The Company’s Communities offerings, including Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, and Flickr, enable users to organize into groups and share knowledge and photos. These offerings are generally provided to users free of charge. It generates revenues from its Communities offerings primarily through display advertising. Yahoo! Groups provides members with shared access to information, such as message archives, photo albums, event calendars, and polls. Yahoo! Answers is a service where anyone can ask and answer questions on any topic. Flickr is an online photo management and sharing service that makes it easy for people to upload, store, organize, and share their photos. In addition to the basic service, Flickr offers a fee-based service with unlimited storage, uploads, and an advertising-free browsing and sharing interface.

Search

The Company’s Search offerings include Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Local, Yahoo! Yellow Pages and Yahoo! Maps and are available free to users and are often the starting point for its users navigating the Internet and searching for information. It generates revenues through its Search offerings from search and display advertising.

Yahoo! Search, the Company’s proprietary search technology, provides users with a free search capability with search results ranked and sorted based on relevance to the users’ search query. Pages on the Internet are ranked according to their relevance to a particular query by analyzing document features, including text, title and description accuracy, source, associated links, and other document characteristics. Sponsored search results are a subset of the overall search results and provide links to paying advertisers’ Web pages. Yahoo! Local is a stand-alone local search offering, which helps users find local business listings and related content, such as recommendations, user reviews, merchant photos, and maps. Yahoo! Maps provides interactive maps with zooming, real-time traffic conditions, and accident reports, together with integrated driving directions.

Communications

The Company’s Communications offerings include Yahoo! Mail, Zimbra Mail, and Yahoo! Messenger and it provides a range of communication services to users and small businesses across a range of devices and through its broadband Internet access partners. Yahoo! Mail provides users with a full-featured, e-mail functionality and experience. In addition to its free e-mail service, for a subscription fee, it offers Yahoo! Mail Plus, a mail service providing features, such as a display-ad-free interface. Zimbra Mail is a messaging and collaboration application for educational institutions, small to large businesses, Internet service providers, and government agencies. Yahoo! Messenger IM service provides an interactive and personalized way for people to connect and share experiences on a real-time basis.

Audience

The Company’s Audience offerings include Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, and Yahoo! Sports, along with many additional category properties. Yahoo! News aggregates stories from news agencies. Users receive free up-to-the-minute news coverage with video, text, photos, and audio content. Yahoo! Finance provides a set of financial data, information, and tools that help users make informed financial decisions. The content is mainly provided through relationships with a number of third party providers. Some of these providers pay a fee when a user is referred from Yahoo! Finance to their websites. Some financial content, such as analyst research reports, is also available to users for a fee.

Yahoo! Sports offers free and fee-based fantasy games, up-to-the-minute news, real-time statistics, scores and game updates, broadcast programming, integrated shopping, and an online sports community. In addition, the Company offers Yahoo! Autos, Yahoo! Food, Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Health, Yahoo! Kids, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! Music, Yahoo! Personals, Yahoo! Real Estate, Shine, Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Tech, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! TV, and omg!.

Connected Life

The Company’s Connected Life business includes Yahoo! Mobile and Yahoo! Connected TV. Connected Life offers services designed to provide users with easy access to the open Internet and their Yahoo! content and communities across a variety of Internet-enabled devices including mobile devices and television. Yahoo! Mobile is focused on creating experiences specifically built for the mobile environment, building open mobile platforms, and driving mobile advertising opportunities. The Company offers advertising solutions in 23 territories across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

Yahoo! HotJobs provides solutions for employers, staffing firms, and job seekers. It generates revenues from Yahoo! HotJobs through employers and staffing firms that pay to access its database of job seekers and use its tools to post, track, and manage job openings. Yahoo! Small Business provides an integrated suite of fee-based online services including Yahoo! Domains, Yahoo! Web Hosting, Yahoo! Business Mail, and its e-commerce platform called Yahoo! Merchant Solutions.

During 2008, the Company began execution of its Y!OS strategy by launching version 1.0 of the Y!OS platform. Yahoo! Mail provides richer communications by bringing together communications channels (email, IM, SMS) and social interactions into Yahoo! Mail’s inbox, a starting point for Web users. Yahoo! Application Platform (Y!AP) is an application platform that third-party developers can use to create applications and consumer experiences that will run across the Yahoo! network and beyond. Yahoo! Search BOSS is an open search Web services platform that enables developers, start-ups, and large Internet companies to build Web-scale search products by utilizing the entire Yahoo! Search index.

The Company competes with Google Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Time Warner Inc., Facebook, Inc. and MySpace.com.