Pitfalls in recruitment or suicidal tendencies?

AS THE Yahoo! saga continues (last summarised here), it's beginning to see as though Microsoft's presence inside the struggling Internet giant is almost being forced upon it.

Here is the latest addition, which Kara covered here.

About a month ago, BoomTown reported that MSN executive producer and general manager Jeff Dossett (pictured here) was contemplating joining Yahoo.

Microsoft (MSFT) released a statement that day saying Dossett was indeed stepping down from his MSN duties, as I had posted, but noted that he was staying put at the software giant.

Whilst Yahoo! seniors leave or get ejected (two new examples yesterday), it truly seems like the ones taken on board include Microsoft employees, which is a problem. It sure seems like they already 'pollute' Yahoo! with decision makers that are Microsoft people at heart. Would they join hand with Google or happily allow a takeover by their former employer?

Either way, according to the Wall Street Journal, the Yahoo/Google deal is not kaput, contrary to prior, premature reports. Despite Microsoft's shameless attempts to single-handedly intercept the deal [1, 2, 3, 4], negotiations continue.

But now it seems that Google and Yahoo! have come back with another. Anything to avoid government oversight, it seems.

IDG has more details about that original report, which requires registration to access.

Yahoo and Google have revised the terms of their search advertising deal to ease concerns that have stalled its approval by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal's Web site on Monday.

Under an agreement reached in June, Yahoo would run Google search ads on its own sites and the companies would split the revenue from them. It would bring Yahoo much-needed revenue as the company struggles to keep up in the advertising business. The companies voluntarily submitted the deal to the DOJ and delayed implementing it to wait for DOJ approval, which they haven't yet received.

Here are some videos for more background on this. ⬆

Swallowing Microsoft 'poison pills'