TrueCar, Yahoo end exclusive partnership

TrueCar Inc., an online car-shopping service, has ended after just six months its exclusive relationship with search engine Yahoo to send auto shoppers to auto dealerships.

Yahoo Autos plans to keep TrueCar and sign other sales-lead generators, Yahoo confirmed in a statement.

Under TrueCar's original deal with Yahoo, TrueCar agreed to pay Yahoo a huge sum -- $50 million per year for three years -- to be Yahoo's exclusive auto-shopping partner. Shoppers on Yahoo Autos were referred automatically to participating TrueCar dealerships.

Under the revised deal, TrueCar's payments to Yahoo will be triggered when TrueCar receives a minimum number of leads and a minimum number of high-quality leads from Yahoo Autos, according to a TrueCar source. Terms of those minimums were not disclosed.

In a statement, TrueCar said: "The new relationship has been forged as a result of a better understanding of both parties' capabilities and aligns economics and services around a vision of mutual success."

The original deal, signed late last year, said Yahoo would deliver 10 million auto shoppers to TrueCar each month. It's not clear if Yahoo delivered that total, and statements from both companies did not address the issue. The exclusive partnership began Jan. 1.

Under the new arrangement, TrueCar will appear as a button that can be clicked on Yahoo Autos. Yahoo says it is opening Yahoo Autos to "multiple dealers and third parties."

Today, though, TrueCar was still displayed prominently on Yahoo with the phrase "Y! Autos in partnership with TrueCar."

Calls to Yahoo for more information on how shoppers will navigate the revised site were not returned.

Under the revised deal signed June 29, Yahoo Autos can sign other lead generators immediately, a TrueCar source said.