Microsoft, Yahoo End Talks, Rule Out Merger

Looks like a Microsoft-Yahoo marriage is off—for good this time, the Wall Street Journal reports. In a meeting last weekend, Microsoft representatives stated “unequivocally” that the software giant was not interested in purchasing all of Yahoo for any price. Yahoo then ruled out an alternative of selling Microsoft only its search business.

The upshot? The courtship, which Microsoft saw as necessary to compete with Google, has instead pushed Yahoo into its rival's waiting arms, the Journal notes. Analysts believe that a Google-Yahoo partnership, which could be announced soon, will significantly increase Yahoo’s ad revenues by using Google’s more profitable system. (More Google stories.)