The board of Yahoo Inc is to discuss the potential sell-off of the beleaguered Internet company’s core business during a series of meetings this week, people briefed on the plans said on Tuesday.
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Yahoo’s board is slated to meet Wednesday through Friday, according to the report. The source added that private equity firms could be eyeing Yahoo’s core business and be interested in its portfolio of web properties. The news comes as there is growing concern over CEO Marissa Mayer’s lack of progress when it comes to Yahoo’s future, despite the fact that the board has given her several years to try and turn the company around.
Meanwhile: Will killing Yahoo’s main business save it, my colleague Michelle Quinn asks. Yahoo is expected to pull in 4.4% of the $58.12 billion USA digital advertising market in 2015, according to research firm eMarketer, down from 5.1% a year ago. Talks of a spin off had been going on for some time, with industry experts vocal about whether Yahoo should proceed with the spin off. Activist Starboard Value LP wrote a letter to Yahoo, advising them to stop from the planned spinoff and instead focus on selling its web businesses. Around 300,000 Yahoo stocks have been sold at a price ranging from $35.60 up to more than $36 in the after hours trade.
A Yahoo spokesperson declined to comment on the report when contacted by Ars this morning. Yahoo hired the Google executive Mayer in 2012 Marissa Mayer has come under increasing pressure over Yahoo’s financial performance.Mayer was tapped by Yahoo to spearhead a major turnaround.
The company’s emerging businesses, which Mayer calls Mavens – mobile, video, native and social advertising – have been the bright spot for the company.
Yahoo does still plan to spin off its share in the Alibaba Group, said to be worth around $30 (£20) billion.
But Mayer hasn’t yet been able to match the excitement around products from many of Yahoo’s fiercest rivals. To make matters worse, Yahoo Japan is also worth $8.5 billion.
If Starboard’s scenario is embraced, Yahoo’s best-known services and, most likely, its brand would be taken over by a new owner, leaving the company as a shell for stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.
Yahoo – and its group of Internet offerings – are the third-most visited places on the Internet, behind only Google and Facebook.
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The conundrum of what to do with Yahoo and its older, established business units has gone on for some time.
