Yahoo Reportedly Considering Sale Of Web Properties Like Yahoo Mail

Shares in Yahoo jumped more than 7 percent in extended trading on Tuesday following reports that board members were holding marathon meetings this week to decide on a course of action. She is facing renewed pressure from activist investor Starboard Value, which last month threatened a proxy fight if she did not make drastic changes to her plans, which include selling the main search-and-display advertising businesses.

Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer’s attempts to revive the traditional business have born little fruit, and nearly all of Yahoo’s market capitalization of about $34 billion is ascribed to its stakes in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Holding Group Ltd (BABA.N) and Yahoo Japan Corp (4689.T). Until recently, Yahoo had planned to generate returns for unhappy shareholders by spinning off its stake in Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, which is valued at more than $30 billion.

As troubles continue to hound the company that has gone from being an Internet pioneer to a second-tier player, reports are circulating that Yahoo’s board is considering selling off its core Internet business and and showing Mayer the door.

Yet, Yahoo has lost advertising market share in key areas such as mobile, where rivals such as Facebook and Google have gained ground.

A giant of the world wide web in the 1990s, Yahoo’s internet business has fallen into a seemingly-terminal decline, with this year’s profits expected to be half those of 2012 when Ms Mayer joined.

Technology news website Re/code cited sources as saying the Yahoo board would focus on the Alibaba spinoff at its meeting, which ends tomorrow.

The board is also looking at whether to keep CEO Marissa Mayer. Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research, said “The saving grace for Yahoo is that it still has a relatively large user base that is reliant on the platform so long as they maintain email addresses there”.

It is also expected the sale of AliBaba’s shares will attract more attention, as it represents a significant stake in the company.

Yahoo Finance’s own investor message board lit up with speculations of an outright sale and the potential impact on the company’s stock value, which has been trending near its 52-week low.

At the same time, Yahoo’s stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan – a joint venture with Japanese internet group Softbank – have ballooned in value.

Yahoo’s core business is shrinking, but it still represents some of the most visited services on the Web.

“Yahoo was one of the original internet companies, it was enormously powerful and successful for a long time”, Sterling said.