A discussion about the software industry and their coders

Viacom has signed a multi-year exclusive Ad deal with Yahoo! This is a clear signal from Viacom that it meant business when it sued Google for US $ 1 billion over the issue of "massive intentional copyright infringments" by YouTube.

This action from Viacom clearly negates the stand taken by folks who condescendingly waved their hands and said "oh! this lawsuit thingy is all pressure tactics. Viacom will soon be sitting on the negotation table with Google, salivating at the traffic that YouTube gets."

Interestingly, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt also stated in an interview to WIRED that Viacom's lawsuit is just "business negotiation" and nothing more.

According to CNN Money Viacom Viacom Inc. has:

chosen Yahoo Inc. to provide search advertising for 33 of its Internet sites...the multiyear advertising partnership with Yahoo covers broadband sites for its MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon networks and could expand to more than 140 additional sites worldwide.

The Viacom deal will obviously provide momentum to Yahoo!'s recently launched new Ad Platform Panama -- which started showing a 5% increase in Ad Clickthrough Rate from its first week of launch. Better Ad performance means additional revenue for Yahoo! and greater pull for Advertisers to work with Yahoo!

YouTube has already started giving pain to Google from a business loss perspective. First Joost now Yahoo! Viacom's loss of love with Google story is clearly gaining momentum. It is not going to die down quite as easily as many had predicted.