According to Mr. Ted Meisel President & CEO of Overture (one of the major search conglomerates/advertising networks), that Yahoo!, Inc., a leading global Internet company, announced plans to acquire Overture. It is likely to dominate the Internet paid search, and placement market significantly over the next few months. As of now, Yahoo is using Google search results. Yahoo also uses its directory for placement of search results. It is expected that Yahoo! may continue using Google search results till the transition is stabilized. According to the news letter "Yahoo! is committed to preserving Overture's partner network of leading Web properties, such as MSN, Lycos and InfoSpace, and continually innovating its products and services to meet the needs of both advertisers and affiliate partners."

Also, the advertisers of Overture can continue advertising and not affected by the acquisition. It is to be seen whether Yahoo! continues to deliver Google search results on the portal. It is likely that it switches to its own search results in the coming months. Currently, Yahoo holds significant amount of search market on the Internet. Also, note that Overture, acquired Fast's Internet Search earlier this year. As the acquisitions and mergers become more frequent, one thing appear to be clear. The era of free search engine placement, and positioning based on merit is getting increasingly narrowed down.