Microsoft has contacted Yahoo! over the last few days to explore the possibility of buying part of the online search engine, and hinted that it may still consider launching another bid for the entire group.

It is thought that the new talks have centred on merging the two companies’s online search businesses.

The move by Microsoft comes just after Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist shareholder, threatened a boardroom coup, involving kicking ten directors off the Yahoo! board.

Mr Icahn, who held 4 per cent of Yahoo! shares at the end of last week, is seeking to force the internet company to reopen talks with Microsoft which had offered to pay $47.5 billion (£24.3 billion) as part of a cash and shares bid.

Yesterday, Microsoft said that it had contacted Yahoo! about the possibility of an alternative deal, which would not involve a full acquisition but the sale of just part of the company.

Should Microsoft’s new proposal be accepted by Yahoo!, it could help the internet company to avoid a damaging proxy fight with Mr Icahn.

It is not thought that Microsoft had been in talks with Mr Icahn.

In its statement published yesterday afternoon, Microsoft said: “[We are] not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo! at this time, but [we] reserve the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo! or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo! or Microsoft or with other third parties. There of course can be no assurance that any transaction will result from these discussions.”

Two weeks ago, Microsoft walked away from Yahoo! after four months of bid discussions failed to bring the companies to an agreement. The software company had offered to pay $33 a share for Yahoo!, a valuation which represented a 72 per cent premium to the share price at the end of January, just before its initial approach was made public.

Jerry Yang, the co-founder and chief executive of Yahoo!, had rejected that offer claiming that the price was too low.

At the end of last week, Mr Icahn revealed that he had recently spent about $1 billion buying shares in Yahoo! — representing a 4 per cent stake — and was seeking regulatory approval to more than double his holding. He claimed to have the support of some other Yahoo! shareholders to lead a proxy fight against the company, replace ten directors with his own nominated executives and force the company to reopen talks with Microsoft.

After Mr Yang declined the $33 a share offer, Microsoft repeatedly pointed out that it had moved on from Yahoo! and was on the hunt for new deals.

Microsoft wants Yahoo! because it needs to compete more aggressively with Google, the world’s biggest internet company which holds the lion’s share of the $40 billion a year online advertising market. That market is expected to double within two years.

Yahoo! declined to comment.

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