Yahoo 2004 Annual Report Download - page 15

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Yahoo! services, fees from carriers for services that drive data usage and revenue share arrangements on distribution of
premium mobile content.
ACQUISITIONS
Consistent with our business strategy to provide users with high quality, innovative services and to provide the most
efficient and effective marketing platform for businesses, and our financial strategy to create long-term value for our
shareholders, we continue to acquire companies. We completed a number of acquisitions during 2004, including the
acquisitions of 3721 Network Software Company Limited, (‘‘3721’’) in January, Kelkoo in April, and Musicmatch in
October. 3721 is a Hong Kong-based software development company focused on keyword search technology. Kelkoo is
an online comparison shopping service for the European market. Musicmatch is a provider of personalized music software
and services. Since inception, we have also acquired a number of other companies including those that provided
technologies, content, databases, software, and/or tools to develop and expand upon our offerings on the Yahoo!
Network.
GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
We manage and measure our business geographically; our principal geographies being the United States and International.
We seek to build upon our global user base by developing Internet offerings focused on geographic regions, which
include foreign countries as well as domestic metropolitan areas. We have launched numerous geographically and demo-
graphically-targeted Web offerings. Additional information required by this item is incorporated herein by reference to
Note 15 – ’’Segments’’ of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, which appears in Item 8 of this Annual
Report on Form 10-K.
We provide services in more than 15 languages in over 20 countries, regions and territories, including localized versions
of Yahoo! in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Greater China Region (Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong),
Northern Europe and Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway), France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom & Ireland, and the United States. We also
provide some of our most popular and point-of-entry services through Yahoo! Asia (our portal to Southeast Asia), Yahoo!
Chinese (U.S. Chinese language site), Yahoo! en Espa˜
nol (U.S. Hispanic site), Yahoo! Canada en fran¸cais (French
Canadian) and Yahoo! en Catal`
a (part of Yahoo! Spain’s Catalan language offerings). Outside of Yahoo’s English-speaking
markets, we have built independent, localized-language directories, Websites and other content, developed by native
speakers of each language. We own a majority or 100 percent of these international operations (except in Japan), and
have established offices worldwide to facilitate the local development of these businesses. We have pursued a consistent
strategy of content aggregation with leading third parties and currently plan to continue to rollout certain selected
services for our international markets.
We have joint ventures with SOFTBANK Corp. and its affiliates (collectively ‘‘SOFTBANK’’) including Yahoo! France,
Yahoo! Germany, Yahoo! United Kingdom (collectively ‘‘Yahoo! Europe’’), Yahoo! Japan and Yahoo! Korea. These joint
ventures were formed to establish and manage local versions of our properties in the respective countries. With the
exception of Yahoo! Japan, these joint ventures are operated and managed by us as a part of our global network. Yahoo!
Japan is a publicly traded company in Japan that is majority owned by SOFTBANK. As of December 31, 2004, we
owned approximately 70 percent of Yahoo! Europe, 34 percent of Yahoo! Japan and 67 percent of Yahoo! Korea. Yahoo!
Europe and Yahoo! Korea are consolidated subsidiaries of Yahoo! Inc. We account for our investment in Yahoo! Japan
using the equity method. We have no funding commitment to Yahoo! Japan. As of December 31, 2004, SOFTBANK
owned the remaining interests in Yahoo! Europe and Yahoo! Korea not owned by us.
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