Yahoo drops fantasy football suit against NFL union
Yahoo has decided to punt rather than continue to oppose the National Football League's players union.
The company filed a notice of voluntary dismissal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on Monday, effectively ending a lawsuit it filed just a month ago seeking a judgment that Yahoo shouldn't have to pay for access to the player stats needed to run a fantasy football Web site. The AP, which spotted the filing, reported that both Yahoo and the union declined to comment on the suit's dismissal.
Fantasy football requires a wealth of statistical information to tally points and cause armchair general managers to wonder what they were thinking when they drafted Matt Hasselbeck. Yahoo, buoyed by an earlier court decision involving fantasy stats that favored CNET parent company CBS Interactive, had been seeking a similar determination that it would not have to pay for access to the stats, which it alleged the players' union was threatening.
It's unclear exactly what led to the collapse of the suit, but perhaps Yahoo was given assurances that it wouldn't have to pay--at least this year--for fantasy stats. The players union is currently appealing the decision in the CBS Interactive case.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
- by idfubar July 11, 2009 2:40 AM PDT
- Any word yet on what led to "the collapse of the suit"?
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