Microsoft refutes Yahoo! takeover claims

Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer has refuted claims that the internet company would consider another takeover bid for Yahoo!. The two companies were in talks earlier this year for a £30m takeover by Microsoft that Yahoo! executives failed to back.

There has been suggestions that Yahoo! chief executive Jerry Yang is interested in restarting talks after its planned advertising tie-up with Google was scrapped.

Speaking at a conference in Australia, Ballmer says his company has “moved on” since May, and Microsoft has no desire to re-start talks.

He says: “We tried at one point to do a partnership around search and that didn’t work either, so we moved on and they moved on. We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly.”

Ballmer hinted that there could be opportunities for some kind of search partnership, but did not give further details.

Yahoo! is reportedly in the due diligence process of talks with AOL over a possible merger of the two businesses.