Internet pioneer Yahoo is reportedly available for sale and the company is said to be reluctantly considering offers. While the company’s CEO, Marissa Mayer would like to see Yahoo through its struggles, investors are said to be impatient and are looking for a way to cash out.
Interested parties have been given until April 18 to make their offers for the company and the acquisition could fetch the company about $8 billion for its core Internet business.
Potential buyers linked to Yahoo include media companies such as the Daily Mail and Time Inc. (TIME). A Daily Mail spokesman confirmed to CNNMoney that the company is looking at bidding for Yahoo.
Technology companies, such as Google and Microsoft are also reportedly looking into bidding for other pieces. Though Google isn’t likely to make an offer, due to antitrust concerns, Microsoft would like to preserve its relationship with Yahoo, providing Bing search results for some search queries.
Microsoft reportedly made a $45 billion offer for Yahoo in 2008, which Yahoo successfully fought off.
Verizon could also be a player. It owns Yahoo rival AOL and other media assets, and the company has publicly expressed interest in taking a look at Yahoo. Other buyers include private equity firms including General Atlantic, TPG and KKR.
After April 18, CNN reported that Yahoo will decide whether it likes any of the offers it received. It could enter into an agreement with a potential buyer, or it could turn down all the offers.
“If Yahoo enters into a purchase agreement, it will likely be a complicated deal that could take a long time to complete. Yahoo has stakes in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, which likely won’t be part of the sale. Yahoo has been trying to unload Alibaba through a complex reverse-spinoff for months.
“If Yahoo doesn’t sell itself, it could begin a nasty battle with activist hedge fund Starboard Value, which has said it would nominate an entirely new slate of directors at Yahoo’s upcoming shareholder’s meeting later this spring.”
At its peak in early 2000, Yahoo was worth $255 billion. Yahoo never really recovered from the dot-com bust. After a series of missteps, bad bets and six CEOs over the past nine years, Yahoo is now valued at $34 billion.
But that $34 billion is roughly the value of its stake in its Asian holdings. In other words, the stock market is valuing Yahoo’s core Internet business as completely worthless.
