Deal Journal - WSJ.com : Revisiting Microsoft-Yahoo, Courtesy of Steve Ballmer

Story goes on to comment about how consensus seems to be emerging that a partnership is more likely than an acquisition.  With Google's current leverage and momentum, I suspect no permutation is off the discussion table between MSFT and YHOO.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had the opportunity last night to squash once-and-for-all the rampant chatter lately about a possible purchase of Yahoo by Microsoft. He didn’t take it.

Instead, when asked at the Software 2007 conference in Silicon Valley about a deal “in the $40 billion to $50 billion range” (about what Yahoo would cost), Ballmer said that although the company’s MO is to do smaller deals, larger ones still are “conceivable,” according to this Reuters account of the exchange.

Source: Deal Journal - WSJ.com : Revisiting Microsoft-Yahoo, Courtesy of Steve Ballmer