Microsoft-Yahoo deal talk rumor untrue: sources

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Rumors that Microsoft Corp is in advanced talks to buy Yahoo Inc are not true, sources briefed by the companies said on Wednesday.

Shares of Yahoo surged 11 percent in early trading after a report surfaced online that the Web pioneer's Chief Executive Jerry Yang was leaving the company and that Yahoo was in late stage talks to sell the whole company to Microsoft for between $17 per share and $19 per share.

Speculation about a possible deal between the two companies intensified after Google Inc scrapped plans for a Web search advertising partnership with Yahoo. The partnership with Google was seen as a way for Yahoo to remain independent and deny Microsoft's advances to buy all or part of the company.

(Reporting by Daisuke Wakabayashi and Anupreeta Das in San Francisco; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)