Yahoo executives are considering a sale of the company’s Internet businesses in a series of meetings ongoing this week, according to a The Wall Street Journal report citing sources close to the action.
The report also said Yahoo is mulling “how to make the most of its valuable stake in Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The board is expected to discuss its options in sessions beginning Wednesday and continuing through Friday, according to people familiar with the plans.”
Yahoo was founded in 1994 by then-Stanford University electrical engineering graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo. Since July 2012, Yahoo has been led by CEO Marissa Mayer who came to the post from Google.
In addition to its search platform, Yahoo Internet businesses include Yahoo News, Yahoo Mail and social media site Tumblr, among other holdings.
Mark May, an analyst with Citi, called a sale of Internet businesses an “attractive option. Not only could this outcome be a more effective way of unlocking value of its stake in Alibaba, but also the core Yahoo business could achieve a higher value … than what is currently implied … given its scale and strategic value to what we believe is likely a number of potential buyers.”
In its write up on the topic, Forbes, citing sources in the analyst community, lists possible buyers as Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Disney, CBS and even Sprint’s Japanese parent company SoftBank.
