Yahoo Is Much More Reliant On Its Search Deal With Microsoft Than It Previously Admitted

The SEC did some digging, and it's uncovered the truth: Yahoo's revenues are much more reliant on payments from Microsoft than Yahoo had previously admitted.

Bloomberg's Brian Womack reports that the SEC asked Yahoo to clarify some of its more recent quarterly financial reports.

Yahoo did so in public filing published yesterday.

Those filings reveal a perhaps ugly truth for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

Quoting Womack: "Yahoo, which had previously said the deal comprised more than 10 percent of sales, said the pact [with Microsoft] generated 31 percent of revenue in the latest quarter."

There is a way to look at this news as good news for Yahoo.

All it takes is imagining that Microsoft is bad at monetizing search, and that when its deal with Yahoo expires, either Yahoo - or a new partner, perhaps Google - could do better.

Then, Yahoo and Mayer would be moving the needle on a much bigger part of its revenues than anyone previously thought.