It's been almost a year since Yahoo Inc. has been searching for alternatives to Microsoft Corp's buyout offer. But recently Yahoo Inc.'s Chief Executive, Jerry Yang confirmed that he is still in favor of the deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft, as it can help Yahoo!, which currently is facing a lot of pressure.

Yang, while speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit, hours after archrival Google Inc. discarded its search advertising partnership with Yahoo, said that if the right price is offered, then he does not have any problem in selling Yahoo! to Microsoft.

Yang, who seemed quite upset due to the canceling of the deal with Google, said, "People who know me know I don't have an ego about remaining independent versus not remaining independent."

Yang further said that he still is open-mined to sell Yahoo's search business to Microsoft. However, no development between the two companies was confirmed by him.

During the month of May, following failure of initial talk, Microsoft had proposed to buy Yahoo's search business. Microsoft had withdrawn its offer of $33 per share for the buyout of whole company.

Following a rumor posted on a blog, Yahoo's shares rose on Wednesday. The rumor said, "Yahoo and Microsoft are in advanced talks to sell the company for between $17 and $19 a share."

Furthermore, the blog post even claimed that Yang is all set to resign from his CEO position. However, the report was said to be false by the Yahoo officials.