Despite the whole Microsoft debacle, it’s still possible – and perhaps likely, judging by the reaction of some investors – that one or more organizations will buy Yahoo. Rumors about takeover plans have begun to swirl, and Yahoo’s stock has begun to soar.
Nothing’s certain yet, with even the most gossipy tales indicating that no solid offers have been made. But AOL is supposed to be interested, and possible allies (since AOL has a market cap of just $2.7 billion to Yahoo’s $22.1 billion) include venture capital firms Blackstone Group and Silver Lake Partners.
News Corp. is another possible buyer, too, according to some reports.
Anyway, Jessica E. Vascellaro and Anupreeta Das, who more or less broke this story, indicated that any deal would likely involve more than a simple exchange of cash. After checking with a few sources, they wrote, "One of the scenarios under discussion among the buyout firms is a complex deal in which China’s Alibaba Group would buy back Yahoo’s roughly 40% stake in Alibaba . . ."
Then, "Some of Yahoo’s other assets would also be sold off to interested media or technology companies, and the remaining company would be of a much smaller valuation that private-equity firms could get financing for, one of the people said."
Or AOL might perform a sort of reverse merger after the Alibaba stake has been sold.
Investors seem to support a change, regardless, considering that Yahoo’s stock is up 7.74 percent in early morning trading.
As a result, it’s almost certain that Yahoo execs (and perhaps Carol Bartz herself) will have to address all these matters when the company gives its third quarter earnings report on Tuesday, October 19th.