Microsoft plans to float a revived search ad proposal to the Yahoo! board now that it has appointed Carol Bartz as CEO, according to reports. The appointment gives rise to hopes that a search deal will be completed quickly, following months of renewed speculation.
With the change in management, a search deal could be signed by as early as Yahoo!'s January 27 earnings announcement, one insider tells the All Things Digital Blog, claiming the proposal is "ticked and tied".
Earlier this month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dismissed claims that Microsoft will launch another takeover attempt for Yahoo!, but kept the door open to a search deal, claiming: "We may try to do other kinds of partnerships with them."
In December, press reports claimed Microsoft was in talks over buying Yahoo! Search for USD20bn and that "broad terms of the deal" werre agreed. This came as Ballmer described a search deal as "advantageous" for both companies and said a deal would be better done sooner rather than later.
In a conference call following her appointment as Yahoo! CEO this week, Bartz said she had "a lot of ideas" about the big questions facing Yahoo!, including whether it should sign a search deal, but declined to give any further comment.
"I believe there is now an extraordinary opportunity going forward to create value for our shareholders and new possibilities for our customers, partners and employees," Bartz says, adding: "Believe me, we will seize that opportunity."
However, she would not reveal any framework or long-term plan for Yahoo!'s recovery, exclaiming the company needed some "breathing room". In June, Yahoo! turned down a search deal with Microsoft in favour of an agreement with Google which Yahoo! claimed would raise between USD250m and USD450m in incremental operating cash flow in the first year. However, Google pulled out of the agreement in October after it was stopped by regulators.
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