In response to rampant industry speculation, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo this week addressed reports that Verizon could be interested in buying Yahoo’s Internet businesses.
Speaking on Monday, Shammo said, “If Yahoo is right,” Verizon could be interested in a potential acquisition, according to a report in the Washington Post.
This is just another in industry movement around network convergence. It seems many major companies are looking to not only control content distribution channels, but the actual content itself. For example, consider AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV.
Last week, Yahoo executives had a series of meetings to consider selling the company’s Internet businesses. In addition to its search platform, Yahoo Internet businesses include Yahoo News, Yahoo Mail and social media site Tumblr, among other holdings.
A Wall Street Journal report 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.
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.”
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.
