Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. announced a 10-year search advertising partnership Wednesday that the companies hope will help them compete against Google Inc. Some key facts about the three companies:
Microsoft:
_ Founded: 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen to bring the Basic programming language to an early computer, the Altair 8800.
_ Headquarters: Redmond, Washington.
_ CEO: Steven A. Ballmer
_ Employees: 91,000
_ Earnings: $14.6 billion in profit and $58.4 billion in sales over the last four quarters.
Yahoo:
_ Founded: 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo as a guide to the World Wide Web.
_ Headquarters: Sunnyvale, California.
_ CEO: Carol Bartz
_ Employees: 13,000
_ Earnings: $11 million in profit and $6.75 billion in sales over the last four quarters.
Google:
_ Founded: 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to organize the world's information so more people could find and use it.
_ Headquarters: Mountain View, California.
_ CEO: Eric Schmidt
_ Employees: 19,800
_ Earnings: $4.63 billion in profit and $22.3 billion in sales over the last four quarters.
