Judge Robert Patterson
In 2009 Microsoft and Yahoo! agreed to merge their search capabilities. Under their agreement Yahoo! would migrate its search and search ad services from its Panama system to Microsoft’s Bing Ads system. Migration of the subject Taiwan and Hong Kong markets was to be completed by 2011. They later agreed to finalize the subject transition by the end of October 2013. Microsoft initiated “emergency arbitration” under the 2009 agreement following Yahoo!’s alleged breach thereof by informing Microsoft that it would not proceed with the migration until early 2014. The arbitrator’s Oct. 14, 2013, award required Yahoo! to use all efforts to complete the Taiwan transition by Oct. 28, 2013, and the Hong Kong transition by Nov. 11, 2013. Denying Yahoo!’s vacatur motion, district court confirmed the award. The arbitrator did not exceed the authority granted him by the agreement’s arbitration provision by issuing a final award or by finding an emergency and irreparable harm. The agrement empowered him to grant non-monetary relief restoring the status quo. Because such restoration may require a party to perform contractual obligations, the arbitrator had a colorable basis for concluding that an injunction requiring Yahoo! to continue to perform was necessary.