• D: All Things Digital , Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:30 AM

Indeed, now that Yahoo has named former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz as its new CEO, Kara Swisher says it's only a matter of time before a search partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft is finalized.

Such a deal has been in the works for some time now, but one source that has spoken to Microsoft execs recently, claims it's now "ticked and tied" and that a deal could be signed as soon as Yahoo's earnings report on Jan. 27. Said another Microsoft source: "We've just been waiting for management clarity to move."

Swisher doesn't have any further details, but she surmises that the new deal will look similar to past offers, with a small payment upfront and a long-term and large amount of guaranteed revenue thereafter. Under a previous deal lodged by then-head of online services Kevin Johnson, Microsoft would have invested $8 billion in Yahoo at $35 per share, purchased the company's search assets for $1 billion and assumed all operations and R&D costs. The software giant would have also returned data back to Yahoo for use in its ad business, and guaranteed three years worth of higher monetization than Panama, Yahoo's existing search system, currently provides.

Read the whole story at D: All Things Digital »