Yahoo considering selling its core Internet business

That decision will be made at a series of boardroom level meetings at the company running from this Wednesday to Friday, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing its usual anonymous sources. They are expected to discuss whether to proceed with the $30 billion dollar spinoff of Yahoo’s stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and whether the company’s internet business should be sold.

Putting a value of $1.9 billion on a spin-off of Yahoo’s core business, Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser endorsed the prospect in a note sent to investors late Tuesday.

Her future, however, could also be discussed at the board meetings, although tech news site Re/code says Mayer continues to enjoy board support, adding that rumours of Yahoo selling off its entire core business are greatly exaggerated. Yahoo was once one of the most powerful websites on the Internet, but it has been overtaken in email and search by Google and beaten in Media by Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon (AMZN).

Activist investor Starboard Value asked Yahoo in November to drop plans to spin off its stake in Alibaba due to the tax concerns.

Starboard’s demand evidently prodded the board to consider an alternative way to avoid a tax bill that could wipe out more than two-thirds of the gain on Yahoo’s Alibaba stake, which was acquired a decade ago for $1 billion and is now worth $33 billion.

Yahoo, once heralded as an Internet titan, now finds itself struggling to keep up in a digital field dominated by Google and Twitter and struggling to keep the doors open. “What’s going on now also has echoes of what Twitter just went through – rumors largely generated by those interested in goosing Yahoo’s stock and a willing media ready to help generate froth”, she wrote. Wall Street also has grown restless with Mayer’s inability to boost Yahoo’s revenue after three-and-half years on the job. Yahoo’s “MaVeNS” business includes mobile, video, native advertising, and social networking.

A Yahoo representative told Business Insider that it would not comment on the report. Perhaps the company thinks that selling off the iconic properties like Yahoo Mail would be a better option for long-term sustainability, that’s actually what the company is reportedly considering.

Aylesworth, who does not now own shares of Yahoo, sold his funds stake in the company approximately a year and a half into Mayers tenure as chief executive after the companys revenue and earnings metrics did not significantly improve, he said.