Mexican court orders Yahoo to pay $2.7 bn over breach of yellow-pages listings contract
01 Dec 2012
A Mexican court has ordered Yahoo Inc to pay $2.7 billion to its former partners as part of a lawsuit filed in Mexico by Worldwide Directories SA de CV and Ideas Interactivas SA de CV over breach of contract related to an yellow-pages listings service.
Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo said that it would appeal the ''non-final '' ruling since it believes that the claims by its former partners were ''without merit'' and it would ''vigorously pursue all appeals''.
Worldwide Directories and Ideas Interactivas had accused Yahoo and its subsidiary Yahoo de Mexico SA of breach of contract, breach of promise and lost profits related to yellow-pages listings contract.
Yahoo de Mexico had in 2003 signed a deal with Ideas Interactivas to bring out ''Yahoo! Páginas Útiles – a directory containing information on local businesses as well as discounts and offers.
The partners were supposed to bring out 800,000 free copies and later 1.7 million units, but the enterprise seems to have never taken off.
Since Yahoo has not commented on the contract and exact nature of the litigation, very little is known of the lawsuit filed at the 49th civil court of the federal district of Mexico City.
