In large part, however, Yahoo was looking for a way to put the lawsuit behind it, said Karsten Weide, an analyst with IDC. "Primarily, I think this is Yahoo saying, 'Oops, sorry we bothered you with the patent stuff.' We're going to go home now," he said.
But in the process, Yahoo secured a piece of the social pie that Facebook dominates. "Yahoo can go to [advertising] customers and say, look, you wanted social and we've got social," he said.