NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's board met by telephone on Friday and discussed strategy for getting Microsoft Corp to raise its $42 billion offer for the company and the possibility of hiring Google Inc to run Yahoo's search, the Wall Street Journal said.

Chief Executive Jerry Yang did not present such a Google alliance as "a preferred choice," the newspaper said.

The board has scheduled an in-person meeting for next week, the All Things Digital blog reported on Friday.

A Yahoo spokeswoman, commenting on an earlier report that the board was meeting on Friday, said the company was still "carefully and thoroughly evaluating" the Microsoft offer but would not say when its directors plan to meet. The company declined to comment on reports of a Wednesday meeting.

Microsoft made its offer public on February 1.

Yahoo has considered an alternate tie-up with Web search leader Google Inc to maintain its independence. Should it pursue the Microsoft offer, it is expected to seek a higher price than the current cash and stock offer.

Analysts have said Microsoft could be persuaded to raise its bid to make it easier for Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang and his board to accept it.

Separately, a major investor in Yahoo met with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to see if he would be willing to raise the offer, the New York Post reported.

Capital Research and Management, which owns more than 11 percent of Yahoo shares and more than 6 percent of Microsoft, wants to know how much more the software maker might pay if Yahoo rejects the initial offer, the Post said, citing a source familiar with the meeting.

Officials for Capital Research and Microsoft declined comment on the report.

Yahoo shares rose 16 cents to close at $29.20 on the Nasdaq. Microsoft shares rose 44 cents, or 1.6 percent, to

$28.56.

(Reporting by Michele Gershberg in New York, Daisuke Wakabayashi in Seattle, Peter Henderson in Los Angeles and Muralikumar Anantharaman in Boston; editing by Phil Berlowitz, Gary Hill)
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