Microsoft says chances of buying Yahoo! slim

Microsoft Corp. Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the chances of the software maker buying Yahoo! Inc. are still "negligible."

"You never say never, I can never say that, but it's so close to negligible," Liddell said today at a Citigroup Inc. conference in New York. The low chances of an acquisition mean Microsoft won't limit its share repurchases, he said.

The remarks echo comments Liddell made in July, when he described Yahoo as a "declining asset." Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, bid as much as $47.5 billion for Yahoo to close the gap with Google Inc. in Internet advertising. Yahoo, owner of the second most-used search engine, fell to its lowest in almost five years Thursdayin Nasdaq trading.