Yahoo may be another step closer to being sold
OREANDA-NEWS. July 19, 2016. Once again, Yahoo is giving the world an update on how its business is doing. And once again, no one really cares.
What people really want to hear about is what exactly is going on with the lumbering internet giant's effort to sell itself. The deadline for the next -- and possibly final -- round of bids is reportedly Monday.
One of the leading suitors is said to be Verizon, which already owns fellow web trailblazer AOL. Another group in the running is led by Quicken Loans founder and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, with the financial backing of Warren Buffett.
Yahoo has been trying to sell off its internet business -- which includes iconic properties like Yahoo Mail and Fantasy Sports, as well as the company's advertising technology -- since February.
Meanwhile, Yahoo on Monday gave its quarterly financial snapshot. Sales rose to \\$1.3 billion from \\$1.2 billion a year ago. Profit, minus some costs, was 9 cents a share. The company beat analysts' sales expectations of \\$1.08 billion but missed earnings-per-share expectations by a cent.
But Yahoo's financial report is less interesting to many people who've been watching the company. More pressing is what CEO Marissa Mayer will or won't say about the progress of the sale.
"In addition to our efforts to improve the operating business, our board has made great progress on strategic alternatives," Mayer said in a statement. "We are relentlessly focused on delivering shareholder value."
It's been four years since Mayer took the helm. She was initially seen as a white knight -- formerly a hotshot Google executive -- tasked with turning the troubled company around. So far, she's spent billions on acquisitions, including the blogging site Tumblr and several small companies, to grow Yahoo's engineering talent. She also sought to turn Yahoo into a media powerhouse. Instead, bets including the revival of NBC's cult favorite "Community" haven't panned out, and Mayer shut down Screen, the company's video service, in January.
So, after some pressure from shareholders, including the hedge fund Starboard Value, the company agreed to explore a sale. But the process has so far been sluggish. There was criticism early on that the company was just going through the motions and not really looking for a buyer, though Mayer denied that. Most recently, there were reportedly complaints that the range of bids in the last round, from \\$3.5 to \\$5 billion, was too low.
If Yahoo is sold, it would be an unceremonious end of independence for one of the internet's earliest pioneers. It was founded in 1995 by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo, and was once the web's brightest star. But it hasn't been able to hold onto that glory as rivals including Google, Facebook and even younger companies like Snapchat have won over users.
Mayer will be speaking to investors on a conference call at 2:30 p.m. PT. Check back here for updates.
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