• by Tanya Gazdik , April 14, 2008

Yahoo's board of directors met Friday to discuss takeover bids, but did not make a decision on which option to pursue.

Yahoo's board instructed management to keep meeting with Microsoft and with Time Warner, and meetings with both are expected to be scheduled for this week.

Meanwhile, Frank Quattrone reportedly has been enlisted as advisor to Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt has hired Quattrone's law firm, the Qatalyst Group, to provide counsel and help strategize its positioning in the Microsoft-Yahoo merger talks. Google recently agreed to serve ads on Yahoo's search results for two weeks.

Schmidt and Quattrone have worked together in the past. Quattrone was one of the first investment bankers to consult with Google when it was but a lowly startup in the late 1990s and Schmidt was party to the creation of Quattrone's new firm.

Quattrone spent several years dealing with accusations of obstruction of justice while at Credit Suisse. But the subsequent clearing of the charge after four years removes any obstacles for him to work in the financial industry.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press is reporting that Google will announce an agreement today with Salesforce.com for the online software service to integrate email and other applications into its own service.

The agreement builds upon several years of collaboration between Salesforce.com and Google, which are trying to persuade more businesses to subscribe to software services over Internet connections instead of buying programs that must be installed on individual computers.

This deepens a relationship that has spurred speculation Google eventually will buy its smaller partner, according to the AP.