Yahoo! dumps Scoot for Yell

NEWS Yahoo! has dumped business directory Scoot.com from its UK and Ireland internet portal and replaced it with Yell.com. Yahoo! has signed a four-year deal with Yell.com, who offered better commercial terms for the internet portal. Although no financial terms were disclosed by any of the companies involved, a Scoot spokeswoman admitted it "was simply outbid" by Yell.com. The end of this relationship adds to Scoot's turmoil as it has seen its share price drop 99.5 per cent since March and also announced it will struggle to trade beyond the end of the month unless it receives a major cash injection. Despite losing the contract and selling its European arm of the business to Vivendi for just 61p last month, the spokeswoman said the beleaguered company has recently secured new deals with Supanet, Tesco Internet Café and Blue Yonder. Yahoo!'s new partnership with Yell will initially be based on the internet only, but there are plans in the pipeline to extend this to Yahoo!'s mobile services.