Shares of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) were almost kissing $20 this morning, before perking up on fresh deal chatter. A report at TechCrunch, citing sources at both Yahoo and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), says the two companies are again talking about an out and out sale. There was also a CNET report saying talks of a partial deal were back on. Conversely, CNBC says the opposite, that there is no deal being discussed, but that Microsoft remains interested in Yahoo’s search business. Yahoo shares are currently up by 2.5 percent after spiking by as much as 6 percent.

Whatever the status of the talks is, the company’s declining shares can’t help but stoke this kind of talk. As Kara Swisher pointed out this morning, even if Microsoft says it’s totally done, it still ought to have a price at which it would be interested again. Stay tuned