Yahoo! chief executive Carol Bartz claims that the Web pioneer did not need to make a deal with the software giant Microsoft.

Analysts and people in the know have been wondering when Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer would announce a deal to see off rivals Google. A Microsoft buyout failed but the pair said that they were talking about a possible deal.

However Bartz said that Yahoo! didn't have to do anything with Microsoft about anything. She siad the outfit had a bright future, probably cleaner and simpler future without thinking there's any Microsoft connection.

She added that Yahoo would be better off if it never heard the word Microsoft. Bartz's comments came just days after Microsoft launched a new search engine, Bing, in a bid to carve out a larger share of the search market.