Yahoo Now Has 25 Percent Stake in Taboola

Yahoo is acquiring a 25% stake in the advertising network Taboola. In exchange for this move, Taboola becomes Yahoo's native advertising partner in a 30-year commercial agreement. The deal will allow Yahoo to use Taboola's technology to manage its native advertising. Taboola specializes in native ads, which can be found on popular sites such as CNN and MSN. The ads often appear to be part of the website. Taboola's shares have fallen about 80 percent since last year. In January, it teamed up with a special purpose acquisition company and was valued at $2.6 billion. Taboola becomes Yahoo's native advertising partner with a 30-year commercial agreement.

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Deal Makes Yahoo Taboola's Largest Shareholder

If you're not familiar with Taboola, let's talk a bit about it. You may have seen its content recommendation widgets on popular news sites like USA Today, Insider and The Weather Channel. They often have sponsored links that lead to third-party websites. These links appear in recommendation widgets at the end of news articles or in the middle of a content news feed. The deal with Yahoo gives Taboola an exclusive license to sell native ads on Yahoo's sites. The companies will also share revenue from these ad sales. The companies did not disclose the terms of the revenue split. With the deal, Yahoo will become Taboola's largest shareholder.

Meta and TikTok weigh in. Executives at companies like Meta and TikTok have warned that advertisers cautious about the economy are cutting back on spending. But Jim Lanzone, Yahoo's CEO, said in an interview that the deal with Taboola puts both companies in a good position when the ad market picks up.

"You know, I've been thinking about it for 5, 10, 30 years. There's a big long-term tailwind behind digital advertising," Lanzone said. He added that the company will continue to bring in money in other ways, such as expanding its subscription business or investing in e-commerce.

Advertisers running native ads may now have another option to expand their reach. Yahoo also commented that they are trying to "build each of their products within their mini media empire and leverage their audience". If this happens, it will give advertisers and brands more of a competitive advantage when it comes to choosing the platforms on which to spend their marketing budgets.