Search engine giant Yahoo (yahoo.com) has taken its small business unit off the market due to a lack of interested buyers, according to a report by news website DailyFinance.

Last September, Reuters report that a source "familiar with the matter" said that Yahoo's asking price of up to $500 million was "likely higher than what buyers were willing to pay."

Yahoo's small business unit provides a range of services, including domain registration, email, Web hosting and other merchant services.

The Reuters story mentioned that private equity firm General Atlantic could be a possible buyer since it owns Network Solutions, which offers comparable services to small businesses.

The report by DailyFinance cited an email statement from Brian Nelson, Yahoo's director of communications, where he said that the company was "focused on competing and winning in Yahoo Small Business" and is always seeking "parts of the business where divestitures, partnerships or outsourcing could generate incremental value and help us improve our focus."

Meanwhile, Yahoo announced Thursday it would sell its job-listings site HotJobs to Monster for $225 million.