Google denies Schmidt said anything serious about Yahoo

On Monday during a press conference at its Zeitgeist Partner Forum in Great Britain, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-Presidents Sergey Brin and Larry Page were widely cited as having opened up the door to a possible partnership, or even something more, with Yahoo.

But this afternoon, a Google spokesperson denied to BetaNews that any of its executives made such overtures. And a YouTube video of the conference which re-emerged this morning after having been absent from public view for most of yesterday, would appear to confirm the spokesperson's take on the story. In fact, Brin and Page were openly reluctant to comment, deferring to Schmidt who made a brief reference to what was then considered a rumor -- later confirmed -- that Microsoft would be open to a purchase of part of Yahoo.

"There's been rumors that Microsoft's going to do another approach at Yahoo," Schmidt told attendees, as recorded on the company's own video. "We've taken a position that the markets are more competitive, creativity is stronger, it's better for consumers if Yahoo remains independent." He then referred the questioner to a February blog post by Google counsel David Drummond, representing the company's continued view of a possible Microsoft + Yahoo pairing.

That statement from Schmidt would appear to fly in the face of conclusions drawn yesterday that Google made open overtures to Yahoo for a deal going beyond sharing advertising real estate on Yahoo's search pages, which the two have already tested. However, perhaps in jest, Brin did make a remark that he'd be happy to consider hiring Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang if the opportunity ever arose.