The paper cited sources who say Microsoft, having already made an offer to acquire Yahoo! several months ago, is now urgently courting the web firm to re-enter formal negotiations.

Yahoo!, which is valued at around $50 billion, is reported to have aggressively rejected the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant's initial attempts to discuss a takeover.

For its part, Microsoft is said to be more determined than ever to strike a deal after Google last month snatched DoubleClick for $3.1 billion from under its nose.

"They're getting tired of being left at the altar," one banking source, who has recently had talks with Microsoft , told the Post. "They now seem more willing to extend themselves via a transaction to get into the game."

I hope this doesn't happen. Yahoo has some useful services which MS would inevitably fuck up.