The Wall Street Journal is reporting (behind their damn paywall) that “people familiar with the matter” are saying that the company has had separate acquisition discussions with Yahoo, Microsoft and Viacom over the last year, and that they are again in serious discussions with Yahoo for around $1 billion.

We’ve been through all of this before with Facebook, back in March. There isn’t much in the WSJ article to suggest that the talks are serious other than the unnamed source they cite. I’ve put in emails to Yahoo corporate developement and Facebook PR for comment. I will either receive emails back saying they never comment on acquisition discussions, or they won’t respond.

There are other interesting tidbits in the article, however, which includes a “dot-drawing” of Mark Zuckerberg and a couple of priceless quotes:

During one series of talks with Microsoft, Facebook executives told their Microsoft peers they couldn’t do an 8 a.m. conference call because the company’s 22-year-old founder and chief executive, Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg, wouldn’t be awake, says a person familiar with the talks. Microsoft executives were incredulous.

and

At one point in the Yahoo negotiations, the talks extended into the weekend, says a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Zuckerberg, this account continues, said he couldn’t take part because his girlfriend was in town. Others pointed out they were closing in on a billion-dollar deal. Mr. Zuckerberg said it didn’t matter: his cellphone would be off, this person says.

Our previous coverage of Facebook is here. Thanks Richard for the heads up.

Update: Facebook Marketing Director Melanie Deitch responded to my email: “No Comment”