• Bloomberg News, Friday, November 7, 2008 11:30 AM

Following CEO Jerry Yang's reassertion that Yahoo would sell to Microsoft "at the right price," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer replied that the world's largest software maker has "moved on." Speaking at a conference in Sydney, Australia, Ballmer said, "We're not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition," but, "I'm sure there are still opportunities for some kind of partnership around search.'' Of course, Ballmer didn't elaborate.

Following Google's decision to walk out of a potentially lucrative search partnership with Yahoo, Yang said he was "open to everything." Following those comments, analysts felt that Yang's options were narrowing and that Yahoo would be forced into some kind of deal with Microsoft. "To this day, I would say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo," Yang said Wednesday at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

In an interview with Bloomberg News, Yahoo spokesman Brad Williams corroborated Yang's remarks. "We're open to talking to them," Williams said. "We still believe acquiring Yahoo is the best option for Microsoft."

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