Yahoo and Microsoft - back on?

The chief executive office or Microsoft was reportedly spotted meeting up with the chairman of Yahoo! in the US last week, prompting speculation in the search media marketing sector that a deal between the two could be back on.

Yahoo's Roy Bostock and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer met up days after Carol Bartz, the new chief executive of Yahoo!, told employees that she had participated in an "informal conversation" with Mr Ballmer, the New York Times reports.

However, both parties have refused to comment further on the news or confirm whether a new search deal is in the offing between the pair.

The meeting between Mr Ballmer and Mr Bostock was first announced by Vallywag and Mr Ballmer has recently stated that Microsoft would be interested in doing a deal with Yahoo! to merge their existing web search and advertising businesses.

Last year, the two companies were involved in months of high-profile discussions about a possible merger deal but former Yahoo! chief executive and co-founder Jerry Yang was reluctant to give up control of the search business.

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