Microsoft inks deal with Facebook

MICROSOFT AND FACEBOOK have signed a search and advertising deal. The partnership between the Vole and the online social notworking giant will reportedly integrate Microsoft Live Search and related advertising on Facebook.

Microsoft purchased a 1.6 percent stake of the company for $240 million in October 2007 and successfully negotiated an exclusive deal to sell ads on Facebook outside of the United States.

The cozy alliance between Microsoft and Facebook only served to illustrate Redmond's soured relationship with Yahoo?

Indeed, Microsoft CFO Christopher Liddell told financial analysts that Yahoo? was a “declining asset” and noted that chances of a full acquisition were " negligible". According to Lidell, "time passed and [its] value eroded”. µ