SBC Yahoooos For Small Businesses
By Susan Rush
from BroadbandWeek Direct - April 10, 2002
SBC Communications Inc. and Yahoo! are taking their
alliance to the next level, expanding an existing partnership
to bring broadband services to small businesses.
The companies plan to market a co-branded, customized DSL and
dial-up service package to small business customers. The package
will include Internet access bundled with Yahoo!'s existing small-business
services, including business-class e-mail, domain name registration,
a self-service advertising program to place ads on the Yahoo network
and financial reporting functions.
Yahoo! will receive monthly per-subscriber payments from SBC,
while SBC will receive a share of Yahoo!'s non-subscriber revenue
on advertising, e-commerce and broadband-enabled features and
services.
The original deal, which marked Yahoo!'s first foray into the
DSL market, called for the two companies to market a co-branded
DSL access service to consumers in SBC's 13-state local service
region and a dial-up service nationwide. "The winner of the
broadband war will be the company that delivers the best broadband-powered
content, communication services and features to its customers,"
SBC's senior executive vice president of corporate development
James Kahan told BroadbandWeek Direct last November. The consumer-focused
service is expected to launch over the next few months.
SBC most likely is strengthening its bond with Yahoo! in an attempt
to put itself on a level playing field with the likes of AOL Time
Warner Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Both companies own a great deal
of online content and have been taking steps to be competitive
in the broadband service arena.
In the small business sector, both Microsoft and AOL Time Warner
have jumped in with service offerings of their own. Microsoft
offers bCentral and AOL Time Warner offers Netbusiness.
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