TechCrunch is reporting:

More details are emerging on round 2 of Yahoo/Microsoft: Instead of a simple straight up acquisition, Microsoft may be able to pull off a deal where they get to pick off just what they want - search - and leave the rest of Yahoo and it’s troubles behind.

This is a deal that would obviously cost Microsoft much less than a $40+ billion full buyout. And Ballmer could quiet the Microsoft employees and stockholders who were making it known that they hated the original Yahoo deal. At the end of the deal, Microsoft would own Yahoo’s lucrative search and search marketing business, and be a stockholder in the resulting entity. That final version of Yahoo would certainly use Microsoft for at least some of its advertising (Yahoo’s display advertising business may stay with Yahoo).

I suspect a deal will be done quickly - Yahoo’s Yang and supporting board of directors are already being beaten senseless by their own stockholders and they can ill afford another round of incompetence.

techcrunch_pw now has H$10 on Microsoft to announce a search deal with Yahoo by the end of May

Tags: deal, microsoft, search, techcrunch, yahoo

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