Yahoo Core Business May Be Sold Off By Friday

But Kara Swisher, the well-sourced editor of Re/code, dismissed those reports in her story on Wednesday morning, attributing them to the Silicon Valley gossip mill. The article states Yahoo’s board is planning a series of meetings throughout the rest of this week to consider selling off the company’s stagnant Internet business.

The Wall Street Journal reported late on Tuesday that Yahoo’s board would discuss these things in meetings Wednesday through Friday.

Last week, investor Starboard Value LP stated that it wanted the board to cancel the planned spinoff of its 15 percent stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and its 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan. However, the Wall Street Journal may have put that theory to rest on Thursday.

It was reported yesterday that Yahoo! was exploring the possibility of selling its web business and discussing maximizing the value of its stake in Alibaba, which is worth over $30 billion.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer speaks during her keynote address at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. Many believe that any company who acquires the core business of the company would get a variety of online businesses.

Much of the value of Yahoo’s shares now is linked to its stake in Alibaba, which has enormous growth potential.

Starboard said in a letter to Yahoo’s board and chief executive Marissa Mayer that the spinoff of the entity called Aabaco Holdings “is not Yahoo’s best alternative” and argued that “instead, you should be exploring a sale of Yahoo’s core search and display advertising businesses”.

Yahoo’s Internet business has been struggling to boost revenue from ad sales in the face of stiff competition from Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google and Facebook Inc (FB.O). She’s been on the job for more than three years.

Finding a buyer for part or all of Yahoo’s business could reduce or eliminate that risk, provided the buyer comes up with a plan for what to do with the Asian assets.

Mayer was brought in to turn the company around in 2012 and proceeded by buying assets like blogging company Tumblr, which cost the company $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile: Will killing Yahoo’s main business save it, my colleague Michelle Quinn asks.

Reasons for the pressure to sell include a potential tax bill of $12bn from the spinoff of Alibaba, with Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba estimated to be worth around $32bn.