Motorola to Add Yahoo Web Services to Products

Motorola Inc. will put Yahoo Inc. Web services such as search, instant messaging, e-mail and news on its hand-held products in a new alliance to take advantage of increasingly powerful mobile devices, the companies said Tuesday.

Yahoo’s services will be available on Motorola’s phones, broadband-enabled products for the home and its upcoming iRadio device, which will allow users to play Internet radio stations and their own digital music.

The companies expect products resulting from the deal to be available to consumers in major markets starting next year, although they are still finalizing details.

The deal is Yahoo’s first with Motorola, which is best known as the No. 2 wireless phone maker, but also makes cable television set-top boxes and routers for home broadband.

The pact, one of Yahoo’s most important with a device maker, is part of the company’s ongoing work to extend its services beyond the personal computer to mobile customers and into homes, said Marco Boerries, senior vice president of Yahoo’s Connected Life business unit.

This is Motorola’s first large deal with an Internet company such as Yahoo, operator of the Web’s most-visited site.

Among other things, the agreement aims to have Motorola pre-install Yahoo’s services on mobile handsets so carriers and consumers have no need to download or add the services later.

Shares of Yahoo closed up 30 cents at $34.15, while Motorola closed up 15 cents at $20.69.