But the ties aren't completely broken. As part of a new three-year agreement between the companies, both portals will continue to use Microsoft's Bing search engine, assist each other through traffic sharing and sell Windows Live Hotmail and Messenger ad impressions.

"We will be fighting for ad dollars ... but it's a co-opetition," said Gary Anderson, vice-president of Sympatico.ca.

The two portals won't share content, but they will re-direct to each other through various channels, depending on their areas of strength. "There were channels where we were clearly number one in the market and there were channels where Microsoft was clearly number one in the market, so sending people back and forth between those channels would be a benefit to both parties," said Anderson.

Visitors to Sympatico.ca, for example, will be re-directed to MSN.ca when they click on the games channel. "We are not going to try to compete with Microsoft's Games Zone," he said.

The intention behind the traffic sharing is to ease the transition for both organizations into stand-alone portals and make it easier for consumers to find some of the content they've grown accustomed to, said Owen Sagness, vice-president of Microsoft Canada.