Microsoft in talks to buy Yahoo search biz for $20 bn

Software major Microsoft is in discussions to buy the online search business of Yahoo for about $20 billion, media report says.

A few months back, Yahoo had spurned a takeover bid from Microsoft worth more than $47 billion.

"Software giant Microsoft is in talks to acquire Yahoo's online search business for $20 billion (13 billion pounds). The proposal forms the centrepiece of a complex transaction that would see Microsoft support a new management team to take control of Yahoo. But there is no intention of Microsoft tabling another takeover bid for the web giant, after its aborted $47.5 billion offer this summer," The Sunday Times has reported.

According to the report, it is thought that Jonathan Miller, ex-chairman and chief executive of AOL, and Ross Levinsohn, a former president of Fox Interactive Media, have been lined up to lead the new management team.

"Senior directors at Microsoft and Yahoo are understood to have agreed the broad terms of a deal, but there is no guarantee that it will succeed," the publication said in a report published online today.

The Sunday Times said that under the terms of the proposed transaction, Microsoft would provide a five-billion dollar facility to the Miller and Levinsohn management team. The duo would raise an additional $5 billion from external investors.