With news breaking that Yahoo intends to lay off a sizeable chunk of its workforce, old takeover rumors have surfaced for the internet giant. According to a New York Post story, private equity firms have reached out to the company, increasing the possibility that Yahoo founder Jerry Yang may ultimately lose control of the company.

"There are a lot of interested buyers standing around looking at Yahoo," an unnamed source close to the company told the paper. "If one of them gets the sense that another is ready to jump, they might move faster [to beat them to it]."

While no formal talks have begun, the list of potential suitors includes AOL, AT&T, Comcast, Microsoft, Viacom and New Corp., according to UBS analyst Ben Schachter.

Yahoo has consistently been linked to Microsoft as a possible match, with rumors surfacing about the two earlier this month. However, many industry analysts have speculated that a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo simply wouldn't work because of the size of both companies.

In the meantime, Yahoo hasn't stopped plugging away. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the company is in talks with major record labels to deliver free, ad-supported music downloads to its users.

Music has long been viewed as a strong lure for users, and Yahoo has capitalized on the medium's strength, offering free streaming audio, music videos and internet radio stations.

Yahoo plans to offer the new service sometime this year, perhaps to compete with rival CBS, which used its Last.FM property to offer ad-supported music to users.