Rumours of a possible takeover of Yell by Google are resurfacing after Yell shares soared by 4.4%, to USD6.48, in their biggest increase since Dec. "Yell has lost almost half its value in the last 11 months and certainly looks more attractive now as a takeover candidate," Jimmy Yates, a London-based trader at CMC Markets, tells Bloomberg. Speculation about a possible buyout by Google previously surfaced last May, seeing Yell's stock soar from USD0.3 to USD9.8 a share.

Analysts supporting such a theory point out that Google is aggressively moving into the sector for local advertising and listings. Recently the search giant was rumoured to be in talks with UK publishers to launch an ad network service for the country's print sector. Local ads already account for about 10% of Google's revenues, according to Piper Jaffray.

Yell, which was spun off from British Telecom in 2001, publishes the UK's Yellow Pages phone books and its online service. In the last financial year its online division, Yell.com, reported revenues of GBP96m (USD188m) in the UK. Its US activities, which include Yellow Books, the US's largest independent yellow pages publisher, account for about half of the group's sales.