Yahoo! Inc, the US web portal exploring strategic options after firing chief executive Carol Bartz last month, isn't necessarily up for sale, co-founder Jerry Yang said.
“The intent going in is not to put ourselves up for sale,” Yang said at the All Things Digital Asia conference in Hong Kong today. “The intent is to look at all options. There's plenty of options for the board, and plenty of options for our shareholders to realise value.” The comments come as Jack Ma, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce company, reiterated today he was “interested” in buying Yahoo! and is awaiting a decision by the Sunnyvale, California-based company. Yahoo! ousted Bartz after the web portal failed to keep pace with growth at Google Inc and Facebook Inc.
Since then “multiple parties” have expressed interest in the company, according to a memo last month by Yang. When Yang was chief executive in 2008, Yahoo! spurned a $47.5-billion offer by Microsoft Corp. Yahoo! now has a market value of $20 billion.
The US internet company has “plenty of options” and its board was “excited” about the ongoing review, Yang said today. “We're waiting for Yahoo!'s board to tell us what they want to do,” Jack Ma said at the same venue within hours of Yang's speech. “We're waiting for answers. If we don't do it soon, it's not good for all of us.”
CROWDED FIELD
The intentions of Yahoo!, rather than financing, present the biggest problem for Alibaba's plans to acquire the US company, Ma said.
Alibaba is working with private-equity firms on Yahoo!, Ma said without elaborating. Yahoo! has drawn an increasingly crowded field of potential bidders for the company. KKR & Co and Blackstone Group LP are among the private-equity firms considering possible bids for Yahoo!, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
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Alibaba Group, whose biggest shareholder is Yahoo!, has discussed a plan with Silver Lake and Russia's Digital Sky Technologies to make a joint bid, people familiar with the matter have said. Another group that is interested in a possible offer includes Providence Equity Partners Inc and former News Corp executive, Peter Chernin, people said. Silver Lake is working with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Microsoft to put together a proposal to buy Yahoo!, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website today, citing people familiar with the matter it didn't identify.
ALIBABA COLLABORATION
Linda Sims, spokeswoman for Canada Pension in Ontario, and Dana Lengkeek, a spokeswoman for Yahoo!, didn't respond to voice messages left after hours seeking comment on the report.