Yahoo, a once Internet giant now prepares to sell its core business. After a series of failure from recovery effort by CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo officially announced sale of its core business on Friday. Following the announcement, the company's shares jumped.
Yahoo officially announced its intention to sell the core business on Friday. According to Reuters, the Sunnyvale-based company announced the company has formed a committee of independent directors. The committee was assigned to explore strategic alternatives and has hired investment banks and a law firm to run the process of auctioning the company.
Following the decision, the company's share is up 2.11% on Friday.
Sale of Yahoo core business was intended only for non-Alibaba side of business, to separate Yahoo core business with Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant. CEO Marissa Mayer told reporters as quoted by The Register, "Separating our Alibaba stake from Yahoo's operating business is essential to maximizing value for our shareholders. In addition to the reverse spin, there are strategic alternatives that could help us achieve the separation, while strengthening our business."
Furthermore, the former Googlers who took helm of Yahoo in 2012 said, "As both shareholders and employees, all of us here at Yahoo want to return this iconic company to greatness. We can best achieve this by working with the committee to pursue various strategic alternatives while, in parallel, aggressively executing our strategic plan to strengthen our growth businesses and improve efficiency and profitability."
For the sale purpose, Yahoo hired three prominent bankers: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and PJT Partners to help exploring options. Verizon has shown interest to buy parts of Yahoo operations, as well as AOL.
Since Marissa Mayer appointed Yahoo CEO, many have high hopes that she would be able to turn the ailing company into profitability. Under her leadership, the company's stock price has increased nearly double. However, analysts have taken note that the increase of stock price mostly caused by investors' enthusiasm for Yahoo's investment in Alibaba since 2005, predating Mayer's tenure.
Mashable reported that Yahoo's investment in Alibaba made its stock very appealing as a way for U.S. investors to invest by proxy into the company before it went public. As now Alibaba has become a public company, Yahoo must find a way to sell its stake to return shareholders money and avoiding taxes. One way to do that is selling core Yahoo's core business.
As a former Internet giant who ruled the early days of Internet, Yahoo has to face a reality of failure to compete in the new era. Now, the company prepared to sell its core business as a fastest solution to optimize the corporate value.
Join the Conversation