Later this week during a meeting, the Board of Yahoo would discuss the prospects of selling of its core Internet business, news agency Reuters reported.
Quoting sources close to the company and familiar with the matters, the report said that the debate about the future of the company and that of high-profile Chief Executive Marissa Mayer would also be discussed at the meeting.
On Tuesday there were media reports about the possibility of sale of Yahoo’s Internet business. Media reports quoting sources had said that the board would also discuss about whether to proceed with a plan to spin off more than $30 billion in shares of Alibaba Holding Group Ltd during its meeting from Wednesday through Friday. Reports have hinted that the company could also pursue both options.
The company's shares were up more than 7 percent in extended trading.
In the past, market analysts have expressed views that private equity firms, media and telecom companies or firms like Softbank Group Corp could be potentially attracted by the prospect of buying Yahoo's core business, which includes popular services like Yahoo Mail and its news and sports sites.
Yahoo declined to comment on the reports.
The performance of the company has put Mayer under considerable pressure and the board meeting therefore comes at a crucial time from Mayer’s perspective. Mayer came to Yahoo after a long stint at Google.
During Mayer's 13-year tenure at Google, she had been credited with helping create the company's celebrated search page and leading the Google Earth, Gmail and Google News teams.
The company and the market had expected that Yahoo, which had struggled to grow its advertising business to compete with market leaders Google and Facebook, would kickstart quick turnaround after the arrival of Mayer.
However the expectation of the market and the investors died down as desktop search ads continued to decline and the Yahoo's plan to push mobile, video, native and social media ads - a strategy Mayer introduced in 2014 under the acronym Mavens - failed to increase revenues.
After investors arguing that Mayer overpaid for an unprofitable product, the $1.1 billion deal in 2013 to acquire social blogging site Tumblr also hit snags. While the user base of Yahoo reached 1 billion following the deal, it did not bring in advertisers.
Yahoo suffered another hit after the U.S. Internal Revenue Service denied a request to bless a deal for the spinoff of its stake in Alibaba, as a tax-free deal in September.
Yahoo said it planned to proceed with the spinoff despite the IRS announcement, but has not yet done so.
Yahoo stands to lose huge amounts in tax if the deal is not allowed to spin off. Followng the debate, one of the activist investor of Yahoo - Starboard Value LP, urged the company to sell its core search and display advertising businesses instead of going ahead with the plans to spin off its stake in Alibaba. and urged the company to sell its core search and display advertising businesses instead.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
Quoting sources close to the company and familiar with the matters, the report said that the debate about the future of the company and that of high-profile Chief Executive Marissa Mayer would also be discussed at the meeting.
On Tuesday there were media reports about the possibility of sale of Yahoo’s Internet business. Media reports quoting sources had said that the board would also discuss about whether to proceed with a plan to spin off more than $30 billion in shares of Alibaba Holding Group Ltd during its meeting from Wednesday through Friday. Reports have hinted that the company could also pursue both options.
The company's shares were up more than 7 percent in extended trading.
In the past, market analysts have expressed views that private equity firms, media and telecom companies or firms like Softbank Group Corp could be potentially attracted by the prospect of buying Yahoo's core business, which includes popular services like Yahoo Mail and its news and sports sites.
Yahoo declined to comment on the reports.
The performance of the company has put Mayer under considerable pressure and the board meeting therefore comes at a crucial time from Mayer’s perspective. Mayer came to Yahoo after a long stint at Google.
During Mayer's 13-year tenure at Google, she had been credited with helping create the company's celebrated search page and leading the Google Earth, Gmail and Google News teams.
The company and the market had expected that Yahoo, which had struggled to grow its advertising business to compete with market leaders Google and Facebook, would kickstart quick turnaround after the arrival of Mayer.
However the expectation of the market and the investors died down as desktop search ads continued to decline and the Yahoo's plan to push mobile, video, native and social media ads - a strategy Mayer introduced in 2014 under the acronym Mavens - failed to increase revenues.
After investors arguing that Mayer overpaid for an unprofitable product, the $1.1 billion deal in 2013 to acquire social blogging site Tumblr also hit snags. While the user base of Yahoo reached 1 billion following the deal, it did not bring in advertisers.
Yahoo suffered another hit after the U.S. Internal Revenue Service denied a request to bless a deal for the spinoff of its stake in Alibaba, as a tax-free deal in September.
Yahoo said it planned to proceed with the spinoff despite the IRS announcement, but has not yet done so.
Yahoo stands to lose huge amounts in tax if the deal is not allowed to spin off. Followng the debate, one of the activist investor of Yahoo - Starboard Value LP, urged the company to sell its core search and display advertising businesses instead of going ahead with the plans to spin off its stake in Alibaba. and urged the company to sell its core search and display advertising businesses instead.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
