By now the story of how Yahoo came close but then lost the chance to buy Facebook for $1 billion last year is a famous Silicon Valley tale. But is a sequel in the works? Kara Swisher over at All Things Digital says yes. Yahoo is seriously considering an investment in the company.

But wait! Wasn’t it Microsoft that was considering a purchase? Yep, and Microsoft May Buy 5% Stake In Facebook and Microsoft Dilemma: Facebook Or Yahoo (Or AOL)? have some background from us on that. But while Microsoft might be interested, Facebook might be thinking otherwise, says Kara:

But a $15 billion valuation Facebook is insisting on is a high wall to climb for Yahoo, and even is tough for the cash-rich Microsoft, whose deal this is to lose.

Will it lose it though? It can’t have helped that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently dissed Facebook publicly, or that Facebook’s staff is uneasy about becoming too close to the software giant or that its and Microsoft’s goals might be different.

Perhaps Microsoft will let Yahoo win a Facebook deal, then save its cash to buy Yahoo and get the stake anyway. :)

Meanwhile, Om Malik has news that Facebook’s traffic took a dip, so perhaps the bubble has popped! Well, you can never make such judgments from a single month’s change, and several are commenting on his post that the return to school might be an explanation. Marketing Pilgrim also points out that the same September dip happened last year, and Facebook came right back up.

Related Topics: Facebook | Yahoo: Business Issues

About The Author: Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He maintains a personal blog called Daggle (and maintains his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan. See more articles by Danny Sullivan