NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Report: Google, Verizon interested in bidding for Yahoo
As expected Verizon Communications, Inc. is set to make a bid to acquire Yahoo, Inc. next week, but in an unexpected turn of events they may be joined by Google, Inc., according to a report Thursday.
Bloomberg claims that Verizon will also offer to acquire Yahoo Japan (currently majority owned by SoftBank Group Corp.) to sweeten the deal, but then adds “Google, the main division of Alphabet Inc., is also considering bidding for Yahoo’s core business.”
Quoting various other sources, the report states that AT&T, Inc. and Comcast Corp. have decided against bidding, and Microsoft Corp. also won’t be among the bidders, despite having previously attempted to buy the company in 2008; of note though Microsoft may still be involved in the bidding process via a third party as a report late March noted that they were offering $1 billion in financial support to private equity funds interested in bidding.
Among other names mentioned are Time, Inc., who is said to still be evaluating a bid, with private equity funds Bain and TPG also likely to make an offer.
Valuation
The report goes on to state that Verizon prices Yahoo’s core assets at $8 billion, with Yahoo Japan being valued at $8.5 billion, making a potential bid for both coming in at the $16.5 billion mark.
Those numbers come despite figures provided by Yahoo to suitors that showed that the company’s revenue was in literal free-fall, and quite possibly a near terminal decline no thanks to the abysmal failure of Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer; those figures showed projected revenue will drop 15 percent and earnings by more than 20 percent for 2016 over 2015, and the numbers get worse compared to 2014.
The report also notes that Verizon, should it acquire Yahoo, would immediately oust Mayer as head of the company and replace her with AOL, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong, with Verizon Executive Vice President Marni Walden assisting the management of the combined entity
First-round bids for Yahoo main web business (that is excluding its stake in Alibaba) must be submitted by April 11.
Image credit: eirikso/Flickr/CC by 2.0
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
