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SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo Inc could be weeks abroad from affairs 15 to 25 percent of Alibaba Group's banal aback to China's better e-commerce company, in a accord advised to annihilate complexities that had scuttled the parties' antecedent negotiations, a being accustomed with the amount said.

The two companies accept been in talks for a month, the being said, but cautioned that there is no agreement a accord will be reached.

Numerous discussions accept been captivated in contempo years about a accord for Alibaba to accost some
or all of the 40 percent pale in the aggregation that Yahoo acquired in 2005.

A $17 billion tax-free asset bandy amid the two companies fell afar in February.

The latest accord would not be tax-free and would be abundant added straightforward, the being told Reuters on Friday.

"The all-embracing complication of this accord is abundant simpler. There's no IRS risk, there's no complications with commendations to the identification of assets," the being said. In a best case scenario, a accord could be weeks away, the being said.

The bearings may accept become added complicated afterward Thursday's adumbration that Yahoo Chief Executive Scott Thompson's resume falsely declared that he had becoming a computer science amount in college.

Yahoo, which initially alleged it an "inadvertent error," has back said its lath is reviewing the matter. Activist broker Third Point, which is arch a proxy action adjoin Yahoo's lath of administrator and which apparent the absurdity in Thompson's resume, has accepted that Yahoo blaze Thompson by Monday.

Yahoo and Alibaba beneath to comment.

Yahoo accustomed that it was in talks with Alibaba, during its first-quarter balance appointment alarm with analysts aftermost month. During the call, Thompson said the two companies were alive on a "simplified" transaction to "monetize" a allocation of Yahoo's pale in Alibaba.

To armamentarium the deal, Alibaba would accession capital. The appraisal that Alibaba receives in the fund-raising will actuate how abundant Yahoo earns in the transaction, the antecedent said.

In September, Alibaba was admired at $32 billion back Silver Lake and added firms invested in the company, according to media letters at the time. At that valuation, Yahoo could accomplish $4.8 billion to $8 billion by affairs 15 to 25 percent of Alibaba.

"Of all the antecedent ones we've formed on, this one feels like it ability absolutely accept a adventitious of accepting done. Or at atomic it did until a day and a bisected ago," the being said, apropos to the altercation about Thompson's resume.