Microsoft’s latest step toward Yahoo is less of a takeover but may provoke no less rejection. Anupreeta Das reports that the software giant is looking at taking Yahoo’s search business and a minority stake in the Web pioneer, but would stop short of a full-out merger, which may well also meet rejection from Yahoo. Yahoo would put its Asian assets, including significant minority stakes in Yahoo Japan and China’s Alibaba, up for sale, while Microsoft would buy a chunk of what remains of the company, a source tells her. Asset sales aside, billionaire investor Carl Icahn may well aim to hold out for a whole deal, particularly if he gets control of the board. At least the proposal from Microsoft would complicate discussions between Yahoo and Google. The two companies are still talking about a possible search advertising partnership. A person familiar with Icahn’s thinking said on Sunday that an alternative deal for Yahoo, rather than a full acquisition, would prompt him to push Yahoo to do a deal with Google.

U.S. diversified manufacturer Manitowoc has raised its bid for British kitchen equipment maker Enodis to 1.08 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) to trump a rival offer. Manitowoc, which makes cranes and restaurant equipment, said it was offering 294 pence a share for Enodis, topping an agreed 282p bid from U.S. rival Illinois Tool Works Inc. The offer from ITW beat an earlier bid of 260 pence a share from Manitowoc. The two U.S.-based companies bid more than twice what Enodis was worth before the war started.

Barclays is considering making a daring takeover bid for a rival as part of a move to raise capital from shareholders, so reports the UK’s Daily Telegraph. “There has been intense speculation about whether Barclays will follow Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Bradford & Bingley to raise capital to bolster its balance sheet but the bank itself has remained enigmatic,” it reports, adding that Chris Lucas, Barclays’ finance director, recently told analysts that “all options are open”. It says Barclays’ top team “feels it has earned kudos with the City by walking away from last year’s battle for ABN Amro, which was bought by a consortium led by RBS for £47bn.”

Other deals of the day:

* Top Nordic IT-services firm TietoEnator, subject of a roughly $1.1 billion euro bid from a unit of private equity firm Nordic Capital, said it is talking to other parties than Nordic Capital about the future of the company.

* Web conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp plans to announce it is buying StarNet Interactive, parent company of GirlSense.com, a website that lets teenagers design and market virtual fashions.

* Educomp Solutions said it had acquired a 51 percent stake in U.S.-based Learning.com with a $24.5 million investment, which included an infusion of new capital.

* Norwegian media group Schibsted will buy 35 percent of Metro Sweden for 350 million Swedish crowns ($58 million) and the firms are to form a joint venture in advertising, Schibsted said.