Ask Renegotiating Multi-Billion Dollar Ad Deal With Google

In 2002, Ask.com and Google signed their first three-year contract for advertising on Ask’s search engine, a deal worth about $100 million. Now, Ask is renegotiating the current deal, which expires later this year, according to Ask Chief Executive Jim Lanzone, talking to CNet last week. Ask’s recent succesful product launches and possible market share gains mean that the new deal will be a multi-billion dollar deal, a very nice increase. Ask may not renew with Google, though.
The company is Google’s largest global partner, according to Lanzone. “We partner on the ad side and compete like heck on the user side,” he said. Ask’s search advertising partnership with Google expires this year. All Lanzone would say in response to questions following the keynote was: “We are in negotiations today.”
The first three-year contract the two companies signed in 2002 was worth $100 million when it was announced. […]

Original post by Nathan Weinberg