Digital - Monday, August 31, 2009 10:03 - 0 Comments

Microsoft and Bell end five-year online partnership

Image via CrunchBase

Microsoft Canada is launching a Canadian version of MSN.com on September 1, marking the end of its five-year partnership with Bell Sympatico.

MSN.ca will be owned and operated exclusively by Microsoft Corporation. The software giant said it had added about 60 advertising and editorial staff to prepare for the launch of the new portal.

According to Owen Sagness, vice-president of Microsoft Canada’s consumer and online group, the joint portal became out of line with the company’s strategy:

This turned out to be a good deal for Bell. Microsoft was driving the majority of advertising impressions and Bell was keeping most of the revenue.

Microsoft provided more than 90% of the advertising page views through its Hotmail and MSN Messenger sites, but gave  55% of the revenue to Bell.

Sympatico.ca portal will relaunch as a separate and distinct site, with visitors to sympatico.msn.ca redirected to Sympatico.ca

According to comScore Canada, MSN.com is the most-visited online portal in Canada.