Big players circle Yahoo

April 09, 2008 Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit is inching closer to a merger deal with Yahoo, while Microsoft Corp. has approached News Corp. about a potential joint takeover bid of Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday night, citing people familiar with the matter. A combination would bring together the entertainment conglomerate's online social networking powerhouse MySpace, Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo. Earlier in the day Wednesday, Yahoo also made good on its promise to explore various "strategic alternatives" by unveiling a test partnership with Google that will display search results with Google ads next to them.

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