April 9 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL are close to striking a deal to combine their Internet operations, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Yahoo would also propose buying billions of dollars of its own stock and is negotiating to display Internet search ads from Google, the newspaper said.

Under the terms of the deal, Time Warner would combine its Internet unit with Yahoo and take a 20 percent stake in the combined company, the Journal said. Yahoo would buy back its shares at a price between $30 and $40 a share, the newspaper said.

A final agreement would be offered to Yahoo shareholders for approval, the Journal said, citing the unidentified people.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Thaw in San Francisco at jthaw@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 9, 2008 21:12 EDT