Going by the Friday reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal's All Things D blog, a Yahoo-Microsoft tie-up for Internet search technology and advertising is apparently on the cards - unnamed sources-in-the-know said that the deal might likely be announced next week!

All Things D said that a number of Microsoft executives - including Satya Nadella and Qi Lu, Microsoft's search head and top digital exec - are currently in Silicon Valley to see the agreement come through.

Though there has been no official confirmation about the deal from either Yahoo or Microsoft, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has mentioned that the company intends collaborating with Microsoft in cased the price is right. Bartz also added she is certain that her company will still have sufficient access to search data.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer too has been making frequent announcements about his company keenness about a deal with Yahoo.

In fact, the two Internet search rivals have been trying to work out an agreement ever since 2006; however, Yahoo's earlier CEOs - Terry Semel and Jerry Yang - could not be in agreement with the world's largest software maker.

Analysts opine that Yahoo will get a twofold benefit from the deal - a lump sum of cash and billions of dollars in guaranteed payments spread over several years; and nearly $500 million yearly savings from not having to run its own search engine!