Microsoft and Yahoo are holding talks on a possible search advertising agreement and the chief executives of the two companies have met to discuss the deal, US media reported Friday, dpa reported. The talks between Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer came less than a year after Yahoo founder Jerry Yang rejected Microsoft's attempts to buy the company for 44 billion dollars. Ballmer has since repeatedly said that he is no longer interested in a buyout, even as he has suggested that the two companies cooperate on search advertising to thwart the dominance of Google. In January, Bartz replaced Yang, after he was widely criticized for botching the negotiations with Microsoft. The new talks revolved around the two companies selling each others search ads in a linkup that would offer advertisers a much larger market than either company can offer individually. Microsoft is set to introduce a new search engine in the summer.
