Google is the latest rumoured Yahoo! buyer

Google, is “mulling” a bid for its search rival, Yahoo! the Wall Street Journal reports.

This the latest news to surface from the “who’s looking to buy Yahoo!” rumour mill.

According to people who are familiar with the matter but declined to be named, Google has entered into discussions with a number of private equity firms regarding how such a deal would be structured. They also stressed, however, that nothing had been finalised as of yet.

“Google and prospective partners have held early-stage discussions but haven’t put together a formal proposal,” the newspaper said.

The report furthermore stressed that even though Google and the unnamed private equity firms were in discussions, nothing may come of them, considering the struggle Yahoo! has had in building a strongly profitable and growing business despite its previous profile as an online leader.

Any possible deal Google and Yahoo! could possibly strike would face massive anti-trust scrutiny. In 2008, Google and Yahoo! had an advertising deal between the two struck down by federal authorities on anti-trust grounds.

Following the failure of that deal, Yahoo! returned to familiar territory entering into a decade long search partnership deal with Microsoft. Previously, in a decision which saw the fall of Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang from the position of CEO, the then sparkling search engine had in 2008 turned down a US$44.6-billion buy-out deal from Microsoft.

Yahoo! would never again be so highly valued.

Since the departure of the colourful Carol Bartz from the helm of Yahoo! a number of companies have expressed, or been rumoured to have expressed, an interest in the company the most recent being Microsoft.

Also said to be looking into a partial or total buy-out of Yahoo! is China’s Alibaba.

The chairman of the Chinese enterprise, Jack Ma recently said he was expecting an answer from Yahoo! within weeks about Alibaba’s long-standing Yahoo! offer, adding that delays were hurting both companies.