The 10-year Microsoft-Yahoo search pact continually seems like it's threatening to unravel. But will that realistically happen? If so, how -- and when?



From All About Microsoft:

Microsoft's 10-year search pact with Yahoo, approved by regulators four years ago this month, is either shaky or stabilized -- depending on whether you side with Yahoo or Microsoft.
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On the shaky front, Yahoo management has made no bones about the fact it would love to find ways to back out of the deal. Back in October 2013, Yahoo officials attempted to use Microsoft's CEO transition as an excuse to put the brakes on its move to Microsoft's Bing Ads technology in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Yahoo wants to reestablish itself as a major player in search, as CNET and Re/code have both reported, but it's hard for the company to do so, given its pact with Microsoft resulted in Yahoo outsourcing much of its search to Microsoft with Bing.

On the stabilized front, Yahoo seemingly is getting a pretty decent chunk of change from its Microsoft arrangement. A reported December 2013 filing by Yahoo with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Yahoo garnered 31 percent of its quarterly earnings from Microsoft -- substantially more than the 10 percent Yahoo had claimed publicly.

  Can Yahoo really wriggle out of its Microsoft search partnership?