San Francisco: Yahoo Inc has said that it will consider a business alliance with Google Inc as a means of refusing a $44.6 billion takeover proposal by Microsoft, a source familiar with Yahoo's strategy said on Sunday.

Yahoo management is seriously considering resuming talks on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, held with Google several months ago, reported a source.

Yahoo wrote in a memo to employees on Friday: "We want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there's certainly no integration process underway."

According to the Wall Street Journal website on Sunday, Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo's chief executive Jerry Yang to offer his company's assistance in an effort to thwart Microsoft's bid.


Spokesmen for both Google and Yahoo declined to comment.

Some have speculated that Yahoo's efforts to find an alternative bidder may simply be a measure to pressure Microsoft to increase its bid, valuing Yahoo at $44.6 billion when first announced on Friday.