Probably won't happen:
- Google is still a competitor during an already sensitive time for Yahoo. Giving Google a further competitive advantage is more costly than the lost revenue from a potential sale.
- It may be inexpensive to maintain operations for Delicious, but it does still remove focus from Yahoo's actual product offering. They want to position themselves strictly as a media company, and their messaging must reflect only that if they want to be acquired. Yahoo has been heading in so many different directions over the past few years that the company lacks identity.
- They're probably squatting on a bunch of patents relating to Delicious (I'm assuming this) which would still provide value in an acquisition.
- It would be a massive PR disaster to try to sell now, they're having a hard enough time repairing their image from layoffs and restructuring; they can't afford to look uncertain about strategic decisions.
I agree that its really sad/dumb to close Del, but I don't think they'll sell it.