Now Ballmer and Murdoch versus Yang, Schmidt and Falco?
News Corp. is now discussing a possible joint takeover bid for Yahoo with Microsoft, according to unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, Yahoo is now discussing combining Internet operations with Time Warner-owned America Online as part of a three-fold move to stave off the takeover bid that includes teaming up with AOL, buying back much of the company's stock and running search ads from Google. Analysts quoted in the Journal still suggest the sale to Microsoft is a fait accompli, and that Yahoo is just trying to get CEO Steve Ballmer and company to cough up a higher bid for shares.