Yahoo! saga continues

After a year of discussions, propositions and denials, it appears that the Yahoo! and Microsoft saga is still not over.

In an interview with the Times, Kevin Turner, chief operating officer of Microsoft, claimed that the software giant was still open to a future deal with the search engine with a partnership of search facilities.

He added that Yahoo!'s new chief executive officer Carol Bartz was "formulating her business plans", which could hint that she is ready for merger discussions to resume.

"We've certainly made her aware and the Yahoo! board aware that if they are ever interested in an opportunity to partner with them on search, we'd like to sit down and at least have the conversation," Mr Turner said.

He added that it had to make economic sense for both parties.

Commenting on the news, Search Engine Journal's Arnold Zafra states that it follows the buzz of Microsoft's closed beta-testing of its re-branded search engine running on the Kumo domain.

He asks whether a possible new deal will see Yahoo! search being integrated with the Kumo-branded service.

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