While Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked about the importance of an advertising deal between the search engine and the Redmond-based software giant, Yahoo representatives told the press that the search for a new company CEO is now nearing its end: the decision could be made public as early as next week.

After the failed acquisition by Microsoft and a failed advertising deal with Google, the current CEO Jerry Yang announced in mid November that he would resign from his position as soon as a suitable successor would be found. The search for the next CEO has been going on for several months now, with the company spokesmen being constantly careful not to feed any speculation by the media: however, as more and more weeks have passed, it would now seem that the company is finally on the verge of naming Yang's successor.

A Wall Street Journal report states that, according to people close to the company, Carol Bartz, former chief executive officer of engineering software company Autodesk, is currently one of the most likely candidates, while Arun Sarin, former CEO of Vodafone, stated he was not interested in covering such a position and withdrew several weeks ago.

As for candidates from within the company itself, Yahoo President Sue Decker is certainly the one in the strongest position, people familiar with executive search say, since she has already undergone two full rounds of in-depth interviews with the current Yahoo board. According to CNET, at least one influential Microsoft source noted that Decker is well regarded at the softwar

e giant, even though the two companies weren't able to strike a full buyout deal, and so far haven't even reached an agreement on a possible search advertising deal that would most likely benefit most parties.

From Yahoo's perspective, notes CNET, naming Decker as CEO could be a good choice to restart takeover talks with Microsoft, since an external hire would mean the new CEO will likely take all the necessary time to review the company assets before even starting buyout talks. However, it is nearly impossible at this point to reliably predict which of the two — Decker or Bartz — will finally prevail, given the very little amount of information that is known so far.

According to AllThingsDigital's Kara Swisher, other likely candidates include John Chapple, former Nextel CEO, and Maggia Wilderotter, a former Microsoft executive. With regard to Chapple, however, some sources from within Yahoo said this was unlikely since Chapple himself would prefer an outsider for Yahoo CEO.

The new CEO will have to deal with many questions, quickly taking decisions on matters such as deciding the strategy with regard to a search deal with Microsoft to determining whether a long-running merger deal with Time Warner online unit AOL should take place, not to mention the disastrous financial situation of the company in the middle of a worldwide economic crisis.

The Yahoo stock climbed about 1 percent today even in a relatively bad Wall Street day, reflecting the hope that the company investors are giving to the new CEO. YHOO is now exchanged at $13.13: its value has slowly been rising since investor and board member Carl Icahn purchased a relevant stake of the company on the stock market, hoping for the Microsoft buyout talks to end successfully.