• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, April 25, 2008

Yahoo and CNet Networks Inc. on Thursday announced an expanded content and advertising partnership that will give the tech site increased visibility on the Web portal.

Under the three-year agreement, CNet will provide significantly more technology content to Yahoo Tech and Yahoo News, supplying hundreds of news stories and product reviews from News.com and CNet.com, respectively, each month.

On the advertising side, the deal will enable CNet to sell ads against its audience on Yahoo properties. Meanwhile, Yahoo will be able to sell display advertising across key CNet properties including BNet, GameSpot, TV.com and Chow.

The alliance also calls for Yahoo's toolbar to be distributed at CNet's Download.com.

"This announcement builds on our strategy to be the partner of choice for leading Internet publishers looking to maximize their revenue potential and audience engagement," said Todd Teresi, senior vice president of the Yahoo Publisher Channel, in a statement.

CNet CEO Neil Ashe said the deal would bring in $100 million of "profitable revenue over the next three years," according to a Reuters report.

Ashe and CNet have been under fire from activist shareholders seeking major changes to improve the company's financial performance. CNet on Thursday posted a narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss--reporting a net loss of $6.1 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with $9.1 million, or 6 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Yahoo launched Yahoo Tech two years ago as a direct competitor to CNet, but the section has not come close to challenging CNet's audience. In March, Yahoo Tech had 4.5 million visitors compared to 15.4 million for CNet, according to comScore. More recently, Yahoo started Tech Ticker, a blog-styled site aimed at tech investors.