According to multiple sources close to the matter, Microsoft has considered buying eBay and merging it with its MSN portal - a deal that would give MSN and eBay considerable clout to take on Google.

Sources indicate that the talks, while still active, have cooled somewhat in the last two weeks as executives considered antitrust issues.

It is unclear what the full impact of yesterday's advertising and search alliance between Yahoo! and eBay will be for talks between MSN and eBay.