Prompted by activist investors, Yahoo has just closed first-round bids for its core business. The company hopes the auction can conclude by June, but the timing could sleep, the people said.
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The bidding process, centered on Yahoo’s core Web business including advertising technology and content such as Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Sports and Tumblr, has been spurred on by activist shareholders seeking for an exit strategy from Mayer’s almost four-year turnaround process.
That could create a distraction for Yahoo’s management and board, who are exploring a sale of the company while also trying to turn around its sagging fortunes. Yahoo shares were up slightly in after-hours trading at $36.70 at 4 p.m.
The results were not as bad as had been estimated by Wall Street.
While Mavens are “critical to counterbalancing” the legacy operations, growth of the newer lines of business have slowed. Meanwhile Starboard Value is seeking to replace the company’s full slate of directors. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Yahoo! in a report on Tuesday.
In this November 5, 2014, file photo, a person walks in front of a Yahoo sign at the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. Yahoo reported Tuesday, April 19, 2016, that after subtracting ad commissions, Yahoo’s revenue fell 18 percent from the same time a year earlier, to $859 million.
While Reuters has placed Yahoo’s value at around $34.6 billion, most bids have only ranged between $4 billion and $8 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Recently, as reported by the media agencies, company has entered into the second stage of bidding for Yahoo Inc’s core assets. Verizon is rumored to have plans of starting a video advertising business and will potentially use Yahoo to support web traffic.
Private equity funds Bain and TPG are also planning bids, Bloomberg has reported, while Google and Time Inc are considering. Cerberus holds 53 percent of YP, while AT&T owns the remaining 47 percent.
Though she said Yahoo will not be providing updates as it continues its search for a buyer, she said the company is being aggressive in its pace to reach a deal.
But Mayer gave no details of how this process was progressing as the company revealed first quarter revenue of $1.09bn, down 11% on the same period the year before, and a quarterly loss of $99.2m compared with $21m in earnings for the first quarter of 2015. YP’s 3,300-person sales team is the largest local advertising sales force in the USA, according to the document.
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Yahoo’s management believes that the company is woefully undervalued, and the best turnaround plan is a healthy dose of staying the course and patience. Founded in 1994 by Stanford PhD candidates David Filo and Jerry Yang as a way for them to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet, Yahoo! has grown into a company that helps p.
