By Nancy Gohring
November 19, 2008

SEATTLE -- A change at the helm of Yahoo Inc. won't revive a Microsoft Corp. takeover offer, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said today during the company's annual shareholder meeting. "Acquisition discussions are finished," he said.

But he continues to leave the door open to another sort of deal with Yahoo. Microsoft is still interested in doing some sort of search collaboration deal, as it proposed before negotiations between the companies fell apart. On Monday, Yahoo announced that CEO Jerry Yang intends to step down from that role after the company finishes its search for a successor.

Yang has been heavily criticized for his resistance to Microsoft's takeover offer earlier this year. Yang will continue to remain on the board. Microsoft executives, including Bill Gates, who appeared at an annual shareholder meeting for the first time since his transition to working for Microsoft only part time, discussed a wide range of other subjects during the meeting.

Ballmer hinted that Windows 7, the next iteration of the operating system, could come next year. The company hasn't nailed down an exact time frame for its availability, but Ballmer referred to the release of Windows 7 "in the year ahead." Ballmer described the earnings growth the company experienced this year but warned that the economic downturn will pose challenges in the future.