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Microsoft has been in talks with Yahoo! about potentially acquiring a major portion of the company, according to a report published Wednesday.

Members of the company's top management are considering a deal despite Microsoft's history of winning over major technology markets - think Web browsers - on its own, The Wall Street Journal said.

Microsoft has tried to compete in the burgeoning online search and Web advertising categories on its own but made little progress as Google has made massive gains as the industry leader, according to the story.

Microsoft executives hope that Yahoo's strength in search and advertising categories would give the company a stronger foothold on the Web, the report said. So far, millions of dollars invested in search-engine technology and online ad systems have yielded little in the way of revenue or market share for the company, according to the Journal.