AT&T and Yahoo get cosy over mobile

AT&T has struck with a multi-year pact with Yahoo which will see the internet company’s search and display ads appearing on AT&T handsets, and a new co-branded portal for mobile web users emerge. The deal will also see the pair cosy up with joint services for AT&T’s broadband customers.
The union comes on the back of some interesting announcements at both AT&T and Yahoo of late – the mobile operator just announced a set of quarterly results where it revealed 2.7 million subscribers joined its the fold – the largest quarterly add for any US operator ever – and mobile data revenue up 57.5 percent on the year before. Meanwhile, Yahoo has recently had a change of leadership, with Jerry Yang taking over as CEO, and a restructuring which will see 1,000 jobs lost.
Archrival Google has also been focusing its sights on the mobile world – last week, it struck a deal with DoCoMo. Under the agreement, Google will become the default search for DoCoMo users, Google services will get polished up for i-mode handsets and Google Maps may come preloaded on some i-mode mobiles in the future.WIth mobiles set to become the dominant way of accessing the internet in the future, it’s surprising there aren’t more of these deals being struck, especially in emerging markets.