Unless there is some major glitch, there might finally be a search and online advertising deal struck between Yahoo and Microsoft at long last.

Top executives at Microsoft–including SVP of the Online Audience Business Group Yusuf Mehdi, search head Satya Nadella and top digital exec Qi Lu, as well as others–have all flown down to Silicon Valley from their Redmond, Wash., HQ today to iron out the remaining issues, which seem to have to do with the deployment of technology.

“It is an entourage,” joked one exec.Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is also deeply involved in the talks, although he is not with the group.

If all goes well, the deal could be announced within the next week, sources at both companies said. The most recent talks have been unusually close to the vest at both companies, and spokespeople for both Yahoo  and Microsoft declined to comment on the issue.

And, of course, they should not, since there is no certainty any deal will be struck at all, especially since the pair have been down this road before, unsuccessfully.In those cases, both sides have thought they were close, too, with fingers quickly pointing at each other for the failure of the discussions.

While BoomTown has gotten several different versions of terms of the latest deal, they all include Microsoft paying Yahoo several billion dollars upfront to take over its search advertising business and guarantee certain payments back to Yahoo.

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