UPDATE 4-Yahoo unveils ad deals, still talking to Microsoft
ju4 wa4i dia4n zo1ng he2 ba4o da4o :\n  (Adds Decker comments on employee retention)\nBy Michele Gershberg and Paul Thomasch\nNEW YORK, June 4 (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc <YHOO.O> trumpeted a\nseries of new advertising deals on Wednesday in a bid to alleviate\nshareholder pressure, even as the company continues "engaged"\ndiscussions over a deal with Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O>.\nYahoo President Susan Decker unveiled the new advertising\npartners ranging from Wal-Mart Stores Inc <WMT.N> to CBS Corp\n<CBS.N> as the Internet company faces pressure from billionaire\ninvestor Carl Icahn and other shareholders over its failed talks\nfor a $47.5 billion buyout from Microsoft.\nShe also suggested that some form of deal with Microsoft could\nstill come about. Shares of Yahoo rose more than 3 percent in\nmorning trade.\n"There are ongoing, engaged conversations," Decker said at the\nAdvertising 2.0 conference in New York. "There are many ways in\nwhich a combination with Microsoft could be very beneficial."\nDecker stopped short of saying whether those talks were about\na full merger or a partial deal. She said previous talks, which\nbroke down in early May, had failed to address issues beyond\nprice, such as ensuring a deal could close.\n"What we're doing now is completely rewiring Yahoo," Decker\nsaid, referring to the new ad partnerships and hinting at\nadditional ways to rouse what she said was "the largest latent\nsocial network" of visitors and e-mail users on Yahoo sites.\nIcahn has launched a proxy battle against Yahoo, accusing its\nboard of driving Microsoft away, ahead of an Aug. 1 shareholder\nmeeting.\nHe cited details from a shareholder lawsuit released this week\nthat showed Yahoo had arranged a costly severance plan in the\nevent of a takeover that critics say could thwart a deal.\nDecker defended the plan on Wednesday, saying it was meant to\nkeep its employee base, the key asset in any deal, intact.\nBut Yahoo also faces pressure from long-standing shareholders\nwho are not convinced it can overcome a growing gap for search\nmarket share led by Google Inc <GOOG.O>, or continue to hold its\nown selling graphical display ads.\nWAL-MART'S EYEBALLS\nThe multiyear Wal-Mart deal makes Yahoo the primary ad sales\nchannel for Walmart.com's display and video advertising. Yahoo\nwill become the exclusive portal to resell the site's display\ninventory.\nThe agreement gives Yahoo a major participant for its new AMP\nad management system, a linchpin of the company's strategy to\nreach outside its own base of users and increase its position as\nthe "must buy" location for online advertisers.\nAMP aims to simplify the process of buying and selling online\nads for advertisers, ad agencies, fast-growing ad trading networks\nand Web site publishers.\nDecker said the system, already in the works for months,\nshould launch for its newspaper site partners in the third\nquarter.\nIn another deal, the digital unit of advertising holding\ncompany Havas <EURC.PA> will work with Yahoo globally on AMP.\nA third agreement calls for Yahoo to carry CBS content, like\nclips from TV shows, as part of a broader plan by the media\ncompany to add new outlets for its television programs.\nThe deal would have Yahoo join the CBS Audience Network, which\nalready includes Google's YouTube, Time Warner Inc's <TWX.N> AOL\nand Microsoft's MSN, as well as sites like Joost, Veoh and Bebo.\nYahoo also said it reached agreements to expand its newspaper\nadvertising consortium by 94 more properties, bringing the total\nnumber to 779. Among other things, Yahoo provides the technology\nto serve graphical display ads on the websites of the newspapers\ninvolved.\nYahoo has also been talking to Google about an advertising\npartnership in web search, although Decker declined to talk about\nany current negotiations on that front.\n"We looked at that alternative," she said. "It did inform how\nthe board responded to some of the past overtures" from\nMicrosoft.\nShares of Yahoo were up 83 cents at $26.98.\n(Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Phil Berlowitz)\n((paul.thomasch@thomsonreuters.com; 1 646 223-6092; Reuters\nMessaging: paul.thomasch.reuters.com@reuters.com))\n(Visit http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/ for more coverage at\nthe Reuters MediaFile blog)\nKeywords: YAHOO/\nKeywords: YAHOO/