$20B Yahoo Search Deal 'Total Fiction': Exec

A report that Microsoft will buy Yahoo's search business and give two Internet execs a 30% share is "total fiction," one of the execs tells Kara Swisher at AllThingsDigital. Swisher agrees that the $20 billion deal, reported by the London Times, is likely non-existent. After all, board member Carl Icahn would know about it—and his recent purchase of nearly seven million Yahoo shares "would smack of insider trading" if the purchase went through.

"Yahoo has also said in recent days that it is not currently engaged in any kind of talks with Microsoft, even about a more likely search deal," writes Swisher. "At least in this chapter of the drama that has engulfed Yahoo over the last year, believe them." (More Microsoft stories.)