Microsoft's board convened Wednesday but failed to reach a decision on the company's bid for Yahoo. The Wall Street Journal alleges that people familiar with the matter told them the Redmond company could not agree whether to raise the bid or take the hostile path, or ditch the deal altogether.

The following day, yesterday, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told employees at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters that he will not pay "a dime above" what he thought Yahoo was worth, also saying that he "will go to what I think it's worth if that gets a deal done."

He also told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that "With the right circumstances it'll happen. Without the right circumstances it won't happen," he said. Ballmer explained that Microsoft essentially wants Yahoo's market share in advertising, and buying the company is really one of very few options. That's because other competitors are just too small to bother or they are Google, which is impossible to buy.

Microsoft wants "to get to scale more quickly," Ballmer said. He thinks that, either way, Microsoft will get there, just much slower without the Yahoo springboard. The Microsoft Chief Executive said that a decision will be made shortly.

Meanwhile, the WSJ and other news sources have reported that Yahoo is pondering a deal with Google which will see Google ads on Yahoo web pages, which could bring around $1 billion a year to the troubled company and could save it from Microsoft by convincing its shareholders that the company still has a bright future on its own.

Last week, Ballmer said Microsoft could take into consideration to stop pursuing a deal with Yahoo, however, most analysts dismiss this option. Yahoo is expected to hold a meeting of its own today.

After months of failed negotiations, Microsoft gave Yahoo an ultimatum in an April 5 letter, stating that if the two companies will not begin a negotiation on a definitive agreement within three weeks, they will take the case directly to the shareholders and start a proxy contest to elect a slate of directors for Yahoo board. However, the deadline, which was due this week, expired almost a week ago.

The deal, if finalized, will be the biggest-ever takeover in the high-tech industry, ever.