Yahoo! to! offload! Delicious! as! early! as! next! week!

Yahoo! is reportedly close to bagging a new suitor for its bookmarking web property Delicious.

A buyout deal of between $1m and $2m has been suggested by a source familiar with the talks, according to Business Insider.

The report said it was unclear which "strategic partner" was planning to acquire Delicious, but some have tagged StumbleUpon as the possible buyer, given that it recently completed a $17m funding round.

Yahoo! scooped up the social bookmarking service in 2005. By the summer of 2008, the company's founder, Joshua Schacter, had quit the purple palace.

In December last year Delicious confirmed rumours that Yahoo! wanted to offload the site.

"While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive," said the Web2.0 outfit at the time.

However, the company has yet to break free from Yahoo!. According to Business Insider, the sell-off is taking its sweet, or perhaps bitter, time because the Delicious infrastructure relies on Yahoo! tech.

A sale could be closed as early as next week, said the report. ®