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Microsoft and Yell Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Alliance to Offer SMBs Innovative Digital Solutions
READING, England and REDMOND, Washington, July 12, 2011/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Today, Microsoft Corp. and Yell Group announced plans to form a broad,
global strategic alliance, taking advantage of their complementary strengths
and expertise in the delivery of innovative online advertising and business
solutions to assist small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) reach and
engage consumers.
Yell currently provides print and digital marketing services to over 1.3
million customers across the United States, United Kingdom, Spain and Latin
America. Capitalizing on the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance and the
growing consumer audience of Bing and Yahoo! Search, Microsoft and Yell will
join forces to offer compelling search, mobile and local advertising
solutions to small and medium businesses and to make the most of emerging
business models delivered through the cloud. Under the plans, Yell will also
offer the full suite of Microsoft's SMB productivity and business software
and cloud services, including Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM
and emerging SMB-focused communications solutions. In addition, Microsoft
will assist Yell to accelerate its new cloud-based services, which will
provide Yell's customers with access to these new digital offerings.
Thomas Hansen, vice president of SMB Worldwide at Microsoft, said, "Yell
Group has one of the largest dedicated sales forces partnering with small
and medium sized businesses and provides customers with valuable, locally
focused internet directories that see over 50 million unique visitors per
month. We are very excited about our plans to form a strategic alliance with
Yell, as it offers us a way to better reach and serve small and medium sized
businesses across the globe."
According to a recent study by Booz & Company, the global digital
services market[1] for SMBs will be $235 billion in 2011 and is expected to
grow by over 45% to $350 billion by 2015. Mike Pocock, Yell Group CEO,
indicated that "small and medium sized businesses are looking for digital
solutions to help them grow their businesses, transact with customers, and
be more efficient. Our plans to form a global strategic alliance with
Microsoft will help us launch our local, cloud-based marketplace, serving
the growing needs of our customers by providing comprehensive digital
advertising, productivity and business solutions at scale, bringing small
and medium sized businesses ever closer to consumers and bringing reduced
costs and competitive capabilities to SMBs that have, to date, only been
available to larger enterprises."
[1]The global digital services market for SMBs comprises online
marketing, business operations, affinity programs and payment services.
About Yell
Yell Group is a leading provider of print and digital services within
the emerging local eMarketplace for consumers and SMBs across its operations
in the UK, US, Spain and some countries in Latin America.
Building on its strong presence in the local market through its current
digital and print portfolio, Yell is developing a broad range of digital
services tailored to the converging needs of SMBs and consumers.
These address both the SMB need to grow, transact and be efficient in
the digital world, and the consumers' need to connect locally to the goods
and services they want, in a way which saves them time and money, and moves
their lives forward.
In the year ended 31 March 2011, Yell Group had 1.3 million SMB
advertisers.
About Microsoft Corporation
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.
About Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp. Search Alliance
The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance combines the complementary
strengths of Yahoo! and Microsoft to create a competitive choice in search
with the scale to fuel sustained development. Both companies aim to
ultimately enable searchers to find relevant results faster, and provide
more value for advertisers and better results for web publishers. For more
information, please visit SearchAlliance.com.
Enquiries:
Yell - Investors
Rob Hall
Tel: +44(0)118-358-2838
Mobile: +44(0)7793-957848
Yell - Media
Jon Salmon
Tel: +44(0)118-358-2656
Mobile: +44(0)7801-977340
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Anthony Carlisle
Tel: +44(0)20-7638-9571
Mobile: +44(0)7973-611888
Source: Microsoft Corporation and Yell Group
.
Microsoft and Yell Announce Plans for a Broad Strategic Alliance to Offer SMBs Innovative Digital Solutions
READING, England and REDMOND, Washington, July 12, 2011/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Today, Microsoft Corp. and Yell Group announced plans to form a broad,
global strategic alliance, taking advantage of their complementary strengths
and expertise in the delivery of innovative online advertising and business
solutions to assist small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) reach and
engage consumers.
Yell currently provides print and digital marketing services to over 1.3
million customers across the United States, United Kingdom, Spain and Latin
America. Capitalizing on the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance and the
growing consumer audience of Bing and Yahoo! Search, Microsoft and Yell will
join forces to offer compelling search, mobile and local advertising
solutions to small and medium businesses and to make the most of emerging
business models delivered through the cloud. Under the plans, Yell will also
offer the full suite of Microsoft's SMB productivity and business software
and cloud services, including Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM
and emerging SMB-focused communications solutions. In addition, Microsoft
will assist Yell to accelerate its new cloud-based services, which will
provide Yell's customers with access to these new digital offerings.
Thomas Hansen, vice president of SMB Worldwide at Microsoft, said, "Yell
Group has one of the largest dedicated sales forces partnering with small
and medium sized businesses and provides customers with valuable, locally
focused internet directories that see over 50 million unique visitors per
month. We are very excited about our plans to form a strategic alliance with
Yell, as it offers us a way to better reach and serve small and medium sized
businesses across the globe."
According to a recent study by Booz & Company, the global digital
services market[1] for SMBs will be $235 billion in 2011 and is expected to
grow by over 45% to $350 billion by 2015. Mike Pocock, Yell Group CEO,
indicated that "small and medium sized businesses are looking for digital
solutions to help them grow their businesses, transact with customers, and
be more efficient. Our plans to form a global strategic alliance with
Microsoft will help us launch our local, cloud-based marketplace, serving
the growing needs of our customers by providing comprehensive digital
advertising, productivity and business solutions at scale, bringing small
and medium sized businesses ever closer to consumers and bringing reduced
costs and competitive capabilities to SMBs that have, to date, only been
available to larger enterprises."
[1]The global digital services market for SMBs comprises online
marketing, business operations, affinity programs and payment services.
About Yell
Yell Group is a leading provider of print and digital services within
the emerging local eMarketplace for consumers and SMBs across its operations
in the UK, US, Spain and some countries in Latin America.
Building on its strong presence in the local market through its current
digital and print portfolio, Yell is developing a broad range of digital
services tailored to the converging needs of SMBs and consumers.
These address both the SMB need to grow, transact and be efficient in
the digital world, and the consumers' need to connect locally to the goods
and services they want, in a way which saves them time and money, and moves
their lives forward.
In the year ended 31 March 2011, Yell Group had 1.3 million SMB
advertisers.
About Microsoft Corporation
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize
their full potential.
About Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp. Search Alliance
The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance combines the complementary
strengths of Yahoo! and Microsoft to create a competitive choice in search
with the scale to fuel sustained development. Both companies aim to
ultimately enable searchers to find relevant results faster, and provide
more value for advertisers and better results for web publishers. For more
information, please visit SearchAlliance.com.
Enquiries:
Yell - Investors
Rob Hall
Tel: +44(0)118-358-2838
Mobile: +44(0)7793-957848
Yell - Media
Jon Salmon
Tel: +44(0)118-358-2656
Mobile: +44(0)7801-977340
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Anthony Carlisle
Tel: +44(0)20-7638-9571
Mobile: +44(0)7973-611888
Source: Microsoft Corporation and Yell Group
.