In fact, one idea that News Corp. has been studying, according to sources, would involve the sale of its MySpace division to Yahoo for a significant stake in the company.
Bankers believe MySpace could be worth as much as $10 billion in such a deal, meaning News Corp. might be able to have as much as a 25% stake in Yahoo. The deal, which again is in its early stages, would also involve Yahoo outsourcing its search to Google, which currently plays that role for MySpace. News Corp. officials declined comment and its unclear whether News Corp has yet to broach the idea with Yahoo.
A similar idea has come up in meetings investors have had recently with TimeWarner CEO Dick Parsons. Parsons has responded to speculative questions about an AOL/Yahoo linkup by saying such a combination could make sense, whereby search was taken over by Google, for a significant fee and Panama sold to Microsoft.