Yahoo might have rung the warning bells with the preparation of its financial information, making them specifically for potential buyers. Its showing signs and signals that it would be intending to put all or parts of itself up for sale. This would have some important news to note for the interested parties, especially Alibaba and investment firms Silver Lake and Digital Sky Technologies, as they have been reportedly discussing a possible joint bid for the troubled Internet giant.
Reuters updated the information from the sources familiar with the situation, noting that Yahoo, with Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. would be sending out financial details to private equity firms and other potential bidders and partners. The recent update even noted that in the last few weeks, there have been a number of potential buyers, which range from large technology and media companies to private equity firms. These interested parties have proposed several different options regarding Yahoo’s various businesses.
The efforts and pains to figure out Yahoo’s financial position usually would be only of Goldman Sachs, who is Yahoo’s longtime banker, but to work on the sell-out option Allen & Co. would be helping Yahoo conduct a long-term “strategic review”. However, none of the above mentioned parties commented for the report.
The sell-out option, may it be partly or in full, came into play only after Jack Ma, chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, said he was “very interested” in acquiring Yahoo. This may be a well thought move as Yahoo has been the biggest investor of Alibaba as it owns 40 percent of Alibaba’s shares.
The the said joint bid, along with Alibaba there would be private equity firm Silver Lake and Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies discussing their plans and strategies for Yahoo. However, the development of the discussion is at its early stages and there is no confirmation that the said bid would result positively or negatively, said the sources.
Bloomberg even got an update from Li Muzhi, an analyst at Mizuho Securities in Hong Kong, as he was noted saying that there might be many thoughts behind Jack Ma opting to buy Yahoo. She however said, “One of the major motivations for Jack Ma to buy Yahoo is for him to increase his ownership of Alibaba.”
Li had another comment to make, which could make a bigger impact on the deals finalization. She noted in her report that as Yahoo, as a company plays a big role in U.S. communications, it is expected that the U.S. authorities would dig deep into the dealings as they would not easily let the buyers get their hands on Yahoo. In this case, there could be concerns as Yahoo would be bought by an international consortium from China and Russia. If the deal is to go any further, they need to be well prepared as “the deal will be scrutinized by U.S. agencies very seriously”, Li noted.
Briefing about Yahoo, the company has been on a low with its struggles against stagnant growth, falling advertising revenue and shrinking market share. Moreover, firing Carol Bartz from her role as CEO added to their problems.