December 10, 2008

A major Yahoo shareholder is reportedly pushing for the company to renew discussion with Microsoft for a deal over its search business, CNBC reported Wednesday.

Ivory Investment Management, a hedge fund based in Los Angeles that owns 1.5 percent of Yahoo, is expected to release a letter Wednesday outlining its plan, which could result in as much as $15 billion from Microsoft, CNBC said.

Officials from Ivory could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Microsoft-Yahoo saga has been a long one. Last month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer finally said that the company was "done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo," though rumors of a search deal continued.

Earlier this year, Yahoo and Google announced a search deal, but that was later called off. The whole debacle was widely considered to have cost Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang his job.