Sydney, Australia - Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer said on Friday that the company is no longer interested in acquiring Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), but suggested a search partnership may still be possible, the Associated Press reported. "We made an offer, we made another offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn't want to sell the business to us and we moved on," Ballmer told attendees at a business lunch in Sydney on Friday, according to AP. "We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don't know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share."

The statement from Ballmer sent Yahoo shares tumbling over 12% on Friday.

Yahoo head Jerry Yang earlier this week said publicly that Microsoft should make another bid for the company, after Google (NASD: GOOG) dropped its efforts to partner with Yahoo for an online ad deal in the face of government opposition.

As for a potential search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo, Ballmer went on to say in Sydney that he believes "there are still some opportunities for some kind of partnership around search," but that an "acquisition is a thing of the past."

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