Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. said it has no interest in acquiring Yahoo! Inc., after Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang said the Internet company is willing to sell.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has ``moved on,'' and isn't planning to make another bid, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said today at a conference in Sydney. It may still have partnership deals with Yahoo, he said.

``We're not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition,'' Ballmer said. ``I'm sure there are still opportunities for some kind of partnership around search.'' He didn't elaborate on the potential partnerships.

Yang said this week that he is ``open to everything'' after Google Inc. backed out of a proposed online-advertising partnership, narrowing his options for turning around Yahoo. The remarks fueled investor speculation that Microsoft might bid for all or part of Yahoo, pushing the Internet company's shares up as much as 7 percent yesterday in New York trading as the broader market declined.

``To this day, I would say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo,'' Yang said Nov. 5 at a conference in San Francisco. ``I don't think that is a bad idea at all.''

Yahoo spokesman Brad Williams yesterday reiterated Yang's remarks. He declined to comment on whether Sunnyvale, California- based Yahoo would seek to start new negotiations.

``We're open to talking to them,'' Williams said. ``We still believe acquiring Yahoo is the best option for Microsoft.''

Yang rejected bids from Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft of as much as $47.5 billion, or $33 a share, earlier this year. Yahoo stock traded as low as $11.25 last week.

Google Partnership

Yahoo sought the partnership with Google, the most-used search engine, as a way to bolster sales. Yahoo's revenue growth, excluding sales shared with partners, slowed to 3 percent last quarter, down from 14 percent a year earlier. Yang faced threats of a proxy fight with billionaire investor Carl Icahn and dissatisfaction from investors, who withheld about a third of their votes for Yang's re-election to the board in August.

Besides a deal with Microsoft, Yahoo's other option is to pursue an acquisition of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. Buying AOL wouldn't give Yahoo the same payoff as the agreement with Google, said Jeff Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.

Microsoft dropped $1.20 to $20.88 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have declined 41 percent this year. Yahoo, down 40 percent this year, rose 4 cents to $13.96.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net; Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 6, 2008 22:51 EST