Yahoo-Microsoft talks fail, Google deal expected
According to Reuters – Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp have failed to agree on a partnership or merger, the companies said on Thursday, sending Yahoo shares down 13 percent.
Instead, Yahoo is close to a search advertising deal with Google Inc and an announcement could come later in the day, sources familiar with the matter said.
The software maker had sought a deal with Yahoo for more than a year. By early May. Microsoft had offered up to $47.5 billion to buy the Internet company.
Microsoft hoped an acquisition would accelerate its ability to capitalize on Internet advertising growth and better compete with Google, which is increasingly fighting for the same audience of Internet users.
“It was pretty clear it was going to be one or the other. Yahoo wasn’t going to do a deal with Google and then partner with Microsoft,” Global Crown Capital analyst Martin Pyykkonen said.
Yahoo said on Thursday that Microsoft had made it clear in a meeting on June 8 that it was no longer interested in buying the company outright, even at the price of $33 per share Microsoft had most recently proposed.
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(Via reuters .)
aGEEKspot 
Unfortunately, (as an advertisor, researcher), Yahoo’s only real value is a search engine of which it is still a really good if not the best IMO (despite the google love affair).
Their advertising Services have no customer service to speak of, and in fact most all of Yahoos other offerings have tanked from Advertising, to Yahoo Answers, to products (such as Juke Box), even their what was once the standard for email, has now turned into a customer service night mare.
So why would Microsoft want anything other than the search engine?
http://american-aquarium.blogspot.com/2008/02/google-love-affair.html