Reports are that Yahoo is holding content distribution deals over the heads of some prospective partners as a result of its new sales alliance with Microsoft and AOL. Also the company is apparently looking to entice others with the promise of getting their content on Yahoo’s traffic-heavy homepage.

Yahoo is doing this by basically threatening companies like The Weather Channel, Reuters and ABC with the possibility of using competing content if they don’t join the sales alliance. On the other hand, Yahoo executives are said to be offering non-content partners the chance to cut editorial distribution deals in exchange for joining the sales alliance.

Sources are indicating that Microsoft and AOL are not employing the same tactics as Yahoo. Jim Heckman, Yahoo’s SVP of strategy and emerging businesses, is thought to be the driving force behind this tactic, given that he’s under pressure to deliver the 20 partners promised last year when his 5to1 Holding Corp. was purchased for $25 million.

The portal sales partnership is right now in limbo as Yahoo struggles to get other Web publishers on board. While Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL were supposed to be teamed up already, things are still pending and it is believed that alliances are being shored up before pushing the partnership. A rep from Yahoo characterized the sales process as “in progress.”

Source: AdWeek