Microsoft Ready To Buy Ask.com?

• By Dan Frommer
• On 2:10 pm EDT, Thursday October 29, 2009

IAC (IACI) boss Barry Diller basically put Ask.com on the market during yesterday's earnings call. And as Reuters notes, there's no more likely buyer -- or outsourcing partner -- than Microsoft (MSFT).

Why?

• It's willing to buy search share, and Ask.com's 3-4% is as good as any.
• Buying Ask.com would be bad news for Google, which handles paid search for Ask.com.
• It has the cash.
• Yahoo -- which is handing search over to Microsoft -- won't buy it.
• Neither will Google.

So will we see a deal sooner than later? It's not far-fetched if the price is right -- or if the companies can make an outsourcing deal happen.