According to The Wall Street Journal and Businessweek, Yahoo and Microsoft are finally on track to strike a deal, a year after Microsoft expressed interest in acquiring Yahoo.

Under the rumoured plan, Yahoo will no longer focus on its search engine, and Microsoft's Bing will take over. Advertising will also use Microsoft's AdCenter technology instead of Yahoo's Panama. However, Yahoo salespeople will continue selling ads, and could get up to 80 percent of the revenue generated by them. Microsoft, on the other hand, will gather data on user search and buying habits.

Analysts believe that in the long run, Yahoo won't benefit much from the fact that its salespeople will control much of the ad sales, as Microsoft will keep and use the data, and Yahoo will not make money on unsolicited ads placed via online forms.

The combined market share of Bing and Yahoo could end up near the 30 percent mark, which is still a lot lower than Google's 65 percent.

More here.