Report: Microsoft seeks help for another Yahoo bid

Now, Microsoft is trying to figure out a way to carve up Yahoo's business and hand off the non-search pieces to News Corp., AOL or other media partners, the Journal said.

Neither News Corp. nor AOL are new players in this soap opera.

Yahoo explored possible deals with AOL and with News Corp.'s popular online hangout, MySpace.com, while trying to fend off Microsoft's advances. And Microsoft previously has talked to News Corp. about making a joint bid for Yahoo.

Desperate to placate its peeved shareholders, Yahoo has resurrected a previous proposal to combine with AOL and give Time Warner a minority stake in the merged operations, according another Journal story late Wednesday that cited unnamed people. The odds also appear stacked against that idea working out, the Journal reported.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had hoped to pitch his latest breakup proposal to Yahoo in a meeting on Monday of this week, but then canceled for unexplained reasons, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

Yahoo hasn't heard another formal proposal since June 8, said this person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the on-again, off-again negotiations are considered confidential.

Microsoft's talks with possible partners are still in a preliminary stage and unlikely to culminate in a deal, according to people who spoke to the Journal.

But the mere prospect of Microsoft returning with another offer was enough to lift Yahoo shares 68 cents, or 3.4 percent, to close at $20.88. Microsoft shares fell 99 cents to finish at $25.88.

Yahoo's stock price has sunk by 27 percent since Ballmer withdrew an oral offer of $33 per share for the entire company in early May. Ballmer walked away after Yang sought $37 per share--a price that Yahoo's stock hasn't reached in nearly 2 1/2 years.

Stanford Group analyst Clayton Moran estimated Yahoo's breakup value at $20 to $24 per share, well below the $33 that Microsoft offered in early May.