The Sunday Times had reported that Microsoft was closing in on a deal with Yahoo which involved Yahoo’s search operations.
However, both Yahoo and Microsoft have now denied that they are in any such talks at the moment.
The newspaper reported that the deal under discussion would put former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, in charge of Yahoo. The Times of London, which cited no sources, also said executives at both companies had agreed to the broad terms of a deal.
Microsoft representatives said in a statement: “We continue to offer no comment on such rumors and speculation.”
In fact, there are no current talks between the two companies, an executive at one of the firms who requested anonymity told The Chronicle on Sunday. Furthermore, the $20 billion price cited in the Times of London article for Yahoo's search business appears questionable given that the market capitalization for all of Yahoo is $16 billion.
Yahoo, the Sunnyvale Web portal, and technology giant Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., had had on-again, off-again talks over several months earlier this year about a $47.5 billion takeover, and later a proposal focused only on Yahoo's search business. Discussions regarding both scenarios collapsed without an agreement.
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