Yahoo has sold Delicious for the underwhelming sum of $5 million, according to one tech blog's report.

Citing "a solid report from a reliable and proven source," The Next Web says the service has been sold to a close competitor also in the social bookmarking space.

Yahoo inadvertently announced its plans to "sunset" Delicious when a slide from an internal meeting leaked to the web in December. Since then, many tech companies, including Google, have rolled out bookmark-importing tools specifically for Delicious users.

At this point, so many startups have been able to siphon off so many Delicious users that many have wondered whether Yahoo would even be able to sell the flailing web property, which was never really monetized in the first place, according to Delicious's founder.

Yahoo acquired Delicious in 2005 for a reported $18 million. If both the $18 million and $5 million figures are accurate, the entire history of the service under Yahoo has been wildly unprofitable.

However, given the aforementioned leak of confidential information and pursuant hemorrhaging of users, we can't say that $5 million is an unfair price.

We've reached out to Yahoo for comment and will update our readers as more details become available.

UPDATE: A Yahoo rep has just responded via e-mail that, although the company isn't able to comment on rumor, "Part of our organizational streamlining involves shifting our investment in underperforming or off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond.

"We're actively thinking about the future of Delicious and we believe there is a home outside the company that would make more sense for the service, our users and our shareholders. We're in the process of exploring a variety of options and will communicate specific plans when appropriate."

It's beyond question that Delicious was not going to be profitable at Yahoo; we look forward to learning what will become of the service and whether it will continue to operate in its current form at "a home outside the company."