According to reports, the urgency on the part of Yahoo and Microsoft to move forward with their search-and-advertising agreement is evident from the fact that Microsoft has agreed to pay Yahoo $150 million when the deal comes through - over and above $50 million payments for three years - and Yahoo, in turn, is identifying 400 engineers who will be shifted to Microsoft to work on search technology.

The Yahoo-Microsoft agreement essentially marks the companies' joining of forces against their common search rival and the undisputed search market leader - Google.

Both Yahoo and Microsoft intend working together in the online search and advertisement business - while Microsoft's Bing will power Yahoo's search capabilities, Yahoo will become the exclusive global relationship sales force for the premium search advertisers of both the companies.

Further, as per the terms of the deal, Yahoo will be recompensed by Microsoft via a revenue-sharing agreement that will pertain to the traffic generated on Yahoo's online properties. Initially, Microsoft will pay Yahoo traffic acquisition costs at a rate of 88 percent of the search revenue generated.

Talking about the monetary advantage that Yahoo stands to gain, Tim Morse, Yahoo's Executive VP and CFO, said that the deal with Microsoft "is a terrific financial benefit for us that starts right off…. savings will be a meaningful impact to us in 2010, as soon as regulatory approval happens."