Yahoo board meets to consider the Microsoft search deal

We came to know that The Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo’s board of directors met this Thursday to discuss a possible search ad-sales deal with Microsoft.

It is also being reported that during Yahoo’s earnings conference call Wednesday, CEO Carol Bartz notably praised Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.

The CEO Carlo Bartz said:

“I think actually Bing is a good product. It actually extends sort of the experimentation around search and how people use it instead of just thinking like a standard blue link,I think they have done a good job. Unfortunately it is only a month into it so it is pretty hard to understand whether it is just curiosity driving what is happening or they are actually going to gain share. I think Microsoft should be given kudos for Bing. I think they have done a nice job.”

The Analyst Gerg Sterling analyzed the possible Microsoft-Yahoo deal saying:

There’s been lots of buzz and speculation that a deal between the companies is “imminent.” The Journal article suggests that some Yahoo board members are fearful of potential objections from regulators who essentially forced Google to abandon the search-ads deal it struck with Yahoo. That earlier Google-Yahoo deal was partly responsible for thwarting Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo.The scope of a deal between Microsoft and Yahoo has also been a matter of considerable speculation. After the initial collapse of the acquisition talks between Microsoft and Yahoo, Redmond tried unsuccessfully to buy just the search portion of the business. Now the question is: if a deal does happen will Bing essentially take over Yahoo search? In other words, will we see: Yahoo search, “powered by Bing.”

Industry analysts suspect a deal is close, especially with earnings reports out of the way. (Yahoo’s profit rose 8 percent where Microsoft’s profit reached 29 percent.)