IAR: Overture Renews Freeserve Deal Temporarily

For industry pundits it is great entertainment watching Google and Overture fight it our everytime a portal/search deal comes up for renewal.

Paid-search provider Overture said Monday its deal with British Internet service provider Freeserve has automatically renewed, giving it until February to strike a long-term deal and fend off another Google encroachment.

The automatic renewal will keep the same terms as the two-year deal Overture (then called GoTo) struck with Freeserve in October 2000. That deal expired at the end of November, but included a one-time, automatic two-month extension.

As previously stated this is an important deal both in terms of the UK market, and the overall battle. Overture will be determined not to loose out to either Google or Espotting on this one. Roll on February