• D: All Things Digital, Friday, July 17, 2009 1:13 PM

Kara Swisher reports that top Microsoft executives are in Silicon Valley ironing out what looks to be the final details of a search and online advertising deal between Yahoo and the Redmond, Wash. giant. If all goes according to plan, a deal will be announced within the next week, sources at both companies said.

Terms of the deal are still fuzzy, but Swisher says she's heard from all sides that they include Microsoft paying Yahoo several billion dollars to take over its search advertising business while guaranteeing certain payments back to the Sunnyvale, Calif. Web giant. There is also a display advertising component, which would likely result in Yahoo selling premium advertising for both companies.

Of course, neither company would comment on this report, but one wouldn't expect them to, either, since both companies have been down this road before and any proposed deal could just as easily come apart. According to Swisher, both parties have been haggling over the particulars of this deal for a long time, including the rate for traffic-acquisition costs and the ability of Yahoo to have control over data.

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