The list of potential Yahoo buyers is already being drawn up

Yahoo’s stock popped 7% on Tuesday, after a Wall Street Journal report that the company’s board was considering selling its core internet business.

People told The Wall Street Journal that Yahoo’s board is expected to discuss its options in sessions that will begin on Wednesday and continuing through Friday. The value of Yahoo’s internet business is estimated to be $1.9 billion.

Growing concerns around Chief Executive Marissa Mayer’s lack of progress turning around Yahoo and an exodus of top executives have increased pressure on the company’s board to consider her future and alternatives to her turnaround attempt, now in its fourth year.

Yahoo is planning to complete the spinoff of its Alibaba stake, now worth more than $30 billion, by next month, Mayer said on the company’s third-quarter conference call in October – – later than a prior target of year’s end.

Meanwhile, Yahoo Inc. maintains its valuable stake in Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba, which Yahoo was hoping to spin off until the IRS declined to rule on whether or not such a transaction could be tax-free, the Business Times adds. Starboard attributes the relatively low price of the Internet business to poor management of the division by Mayer and the Yahoo management team.

It has been struggling to boost revenue from ad sales in the face of stiff competition from Alphabet’s Google and Facebook. Keep in mind, there has been some complications surrounding the Alibaba stake. But those still betting on her may have lingered too long: The stock is down 50 per cent since November 2014, and much of the long upward trajectory was funded by an aggressive share buyback program. Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service declined to guarantee that it would qualify for a tax exemption. Yahoo’s internet business is not even officially on the auction block yet.

During Mayer’s 13-year tenure at Google, she led the Google Earth, Gmail and Google News teams and is credited with helping create the company’s celebrated search page.

The core of Yahoo is “more than just something that would be of interest to other Internet or tech companies”, said Scott Kessler, equity analyst at S&P Capital IQ.

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali sketched out the three most likely scenarios for Yahoo, and concluded that a sale of Yahoo’s core business would deliver the biggest payoff. None of these companies appear to be in talks with Yahoo about a potential deal.