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A few months from now, Yahoo's search engine will be "powered by Bing." After months of back and forth between Microsoft and Yahoo, the two companies finally announced a deal today that will bring Microsoft's search engine to Yahoo's properties, while Yahoo will become the sales force for both companies' premium search advertisers. Barring any roadblocks from industry and government regulators, this deal will grant Microsoft an exclusive license to Yahoo's core search technologies for 10 years. Yahoo expects that this deal will increase the company's cash flow by about $275 million.

Today, a number of rumors about a potential partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft surfaced once again. Almost a year ago, after months of back and forth between Microsoft and Yahoo, we thought any deal between the two companies was finally off the table, but rumors about potential deals continued to bubble up regularly in the last few months. Now, some news outlets are reporting that the two companies may be close to signing a partnership agreement that would allow them to collaborate on search technology and advertising. Bloomberg's Dina Bass, citing anonymous sources, reports that a deal could be finalized within the next two weeks.