January 10, 2000

GM and Ford in AOL and Yahoo Deals

By ROBYN MEREDITH

ETROIT -- The world's two largest automakers announced partnerships Sunday with two of the biggest Internet portal companies -- America Online and Yahoo.

The General Motors Corp. linked up with America Online and the Ford Motor Co. joined with Yahoo. The deals are supposed to make it easier for customers to find car companies and for car companies to find customers.

The deals are similar. GM or Ford buyers who register through special pages on America Online or Yahoo, respectively, will receive periodic messages from the carmakers or their dealers -- everything from notices about changing the oil to recall information to advertisements about rebates. And consumers can go to the Web pages to look up information about cars sold at dealerships.

	Agence France-Press
	Ford's chief executive, Jacques Nasser, left, joined Jerry Yang, a co-founder of Yahoo, in announcing a partnership on Sunday in Detroit.

In a way, they make odd couples -- two old-line manufacturers whose products take years to develop and two icons of the Internet Age. "The auto industry is one of the oldest around and we are one of the newest," Jerry Yang, Yahoo's 31-year-old co-founder, said.

The deals have benefits for both sides. "We look at the automobile as an Internet device," Yang said. "Car companies have never had a great way to communicate with their customers."

The partnerships do not preclude the Internet portal providers from doing business with other automakers. In fact, other alliances could be announced later this week.

"Exclusivity really isn't the name of the game," said Mark Hogan, president of e-GM, GM's electronic-commerce unit. "AOL is clearly the one that brings the most eyeballs -- I'm sure Ford will come to AOL" in the future, he said.

GM will pay America Online for some advertising, and for the sales leads the company generates. Hogan said that the deal was worth tens of millions of dollars.

Ford and Yahoo executives refused to discuss the financial terms of their deal. Jacques A. Nasser, Ford's chief executive, said, "This relationship with Yahoo will reach 105 million consumers."

Those are not the only deals brewing as auto executives gathered here for the annual North American International Auto Show.

Robert J. Eaton, vice chairman of DaimlerChrysler AG, said the company had talked with Renault, Fiat, Honda and others about cooperating to build vehicles, and perhaps further links. DaimlerChrysler, which resulted from the 1998 merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler, would buy another automaker "if the right opportunity presented itself," Eaton said.

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• America Online

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• General Motors Corp.

• Ford Motor Co.