The newspaper, which is owned by News Corp, said the "tentative'' talks could collapse following last week's departure of Yahoo chief executive Terry Semel and his replacement by co-founder Jerry Yang, who was appointed this week to make some positive changes in the field of internet searching and advertising.
The Times said that News Corp, headed by chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch, was interested in a deal even if it meant losing control of MySpace because it would give it exposure to a far larger Internet-based business.
Based on Wednesday's mid-morning closing share price, Yahoo was worth $37, 7 billion; MySpace's value would be between $9.4 billion and $11.3 billion.
MY Space was bought by News Corp. in July 2005 for $580 million.
The U.K. Times, which is also owned by News Corp., reported that the company is interested in Yahoo in order to gain "exposure to a far larger Internet-based business." The newspaper called the discussions "tentative" and potentially closed now that Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang has become its CEO.
The U.K. Times said Yahoo tried unsuccessfully to buy social-networking site Facebook for $1 billion last year. In May of this year, the U.K.'s Sunday Telegraph reported that Yahoo had expressed interest in buying social-networking site Bebo Inc. for the same amount.
According to Hitwise Pty in the U.S., MySpace attracted almost 80 percent of all visits to social-networking sites in April, followed in a very distant second place by Facebook with 11.5 percent. Ltd. Bebo came in third place with 1.3 percent of visits. Yahoo 360, the company's social-networking site, took seventh place with 0.71 percent.
News Corporation didn't comment about Wednesday's reports. - Alla Harutyunyan for HULIQ.COM
