4INFO in text advertising deal with Yahoo

Just a note following Julia’s post earlier.

What a coup for the 4INFO team! I’ve been following them for years and met the two founders in San Francisco a while back. The Alley Insider has announced that they’ve struck a partnership with Yahoo. 4INFO have already swept up most of the mainstream media in the States and count them as partners so it already has a sizable mobile ad network of its own. Makes sense for Yahoo to outsource that part. I wonder, if Yahoo can get it’s act together (with this Microsoft business) whether they might try making a play for 4INFO at a later date.

Yahoo is about to try the only type of mobile advertising that has even close to caught on–text messages. The WSJ reports the company is set to announce a partnership with Silicon Valley startup 4INFO, which will provide technology for Yahoo (YHOO) to send content to mobile phones via text, advertising included.

Yahoo will be able to sell advertising on its text messages–such as news, horoscopes, sports scores and weather forecasts–or 4INFO will sell them via its own mobile ad network. The revenue is split 60-40 with the majority going to whoever made the sale.