What happened between Perion and Microsoft Bing?
In 2024 Microsoft Bing changed pricing and mechanisms in its search distribution marketplace and then excluded a number of publishers. Perion, whose CodeFuel unit was a major partner, cut its 2024 revenue forecast from about $590–610 million to $490–510 million, and its shares fell sharply. Perion said Bing would drop from 35% of revenue to under 5%.
Perion's announcements set out the sequence. Changes in the first quarter of 2024 reduced search revenue; Microsoft then notified Perion and other distribution partners that some publishers would be removed. Perion's later filings say the legacy Microsoft agreement expired on 31 December 2024, that search revenue fell about 76% in 2025, and that search operations work primarily with Yahoo from 2026. The company has folded CodeFuel into its wider Perion One platform.
The episode is the clearest modern example of concentration risk in a bing feed. It also shows that tightening is not unique to Google. Any syndication partner holds its position only while the engine believes the traffic is worth paying for.