(Update: more to come?) Yahoo on Tuesday said that its co-founder Jerry Yang was leaving the company. He had immediately resigned both from the Board of Directors and "all other positions" at the search giant, including a board spot at Alibaba. He sought to "pursue other interests" beyond the company but cast it as an amicable leap, putting his confidence in new CEO Scott Thompson.
Alibaba continues to show strong interest in acquiring Yahoo by hiring a lobbying firm according to Reuters. Alibaba, one of China’s largest e-commerce companies already has a complex financial interconnection with Yahoo. Yahoo owns a 40 percent stake in Alibaba that is worth around $17 billion, which will need to be resolved before any proposed buyout can go ahead.
Since September, Yahoo has been searching for potential buyers for itself. Although there have been many potential suitors, with no apparent deal close at hand, the company is now refocusing itself on permanently filling the CEO slot, which has been vacant since Carol Bartz was fired abruptly three months ago. All Things D, citing its sources, claims that Yahoo's board is looking at Hulu's CEO Jason Kilar.
Alibaba is said to be involved in ongoing negotiations with Japanese cellular carrier Softbank in an attempt to establish a group that is financially capable of buying Yahoo outright. Unnamed sources familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg that Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are also participating in the talks.
The latest bidder in the potential Yahoo takeover is Thomas H. Lee Partners, Reuters learned. THL is said to be looking at a leveraged buyout of Yahoo's US business, which could be worth between $5 and $6 billion. THL has run other media companies such as Nielsen Co, Clear Channel, and Univision.
Yahoo is reportedly exploring options that may enable the company to shed its stake in Alibaba Group without paying taxes on proceeds from the sale, according to a Wall Street Journal report (sub. required). Successfully avoiding a tax payout could bring a savings of approximately $5 billion, as Yahoo holds a 40 percent stake—worth approximately $14 billion—in the Chinese company.
While it's no secret that Yahoo is looking for buyers, the latest unofficial update has its long-time advisers, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Allen & Co, readying to give out financial information to potential buyers. An unnamed source for Reuters said various types of companies have been making various creative offers for Yahoo and its various businesses. Just this past weekend, Alibaba's CEO said he was interested in buying all of Yahoo.
Alibaba chief Jack Ma has told an audience at Stanford University that his company is interested in buying ‘all’ of Yahoo. Currently, Yahoo retains a 40 percent stake in Alibaba, an online commerce company, that is valued in the billions of dollars. However, All Things D reports that Ma has clearly signaled his intent for Alibaba to be a principal player in a takeover bid for Yahoo, and not part of a consortium.
Alibaba Group is reportedly preparing to release an English version of its mobile operating system. Details surrounding the English offering remain unclear, however the move is viewed as necessary to help the Chinese company expand its reach into new markets. The company is said to be working to establish partnerships with hardware makers to pair the English OS with new devices.
Baidu, China's largest search provider is opening an online app store. The company hopes to encourage Chinese developers to create new content for Android phones and for phones running its new Baidu Yi OS, which the company can then distribute. The Yi OS, which Baidu officially announced at Baidu World earlier today, is based on Google's platform.
The cellphone field saw the rare instance of a brand new mobile OS Thursday as Alibaba unveiled the first phone based on its own platform. The Tianyu K-Touch Cloud W700 runs Alibaba's own planned cloud OS, Aliyun, and focuses on web and cloud services. It focuses on web elements like e-mail and search but should also support web-based apps and will back up call, photo, and text data in the cloud.
Accessories for HTC's upcoming smartphones that support Window's Phone 7 Mango OS update have surfaced. Cases from manufacturer Magic Case and designed specifically for the Omega and Eternity phones are now appearing on the global trading site Alibaba. Such a listing gives credibility that the phones could be available for pre-order or actual availability in the near future.
Alibaba, best known for its e-commerce sites, is now working on developing its own cell phone operating system, an anonymous source close to the matter told the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The software will offer cloud-based services, unlike current popular operating systems such as Apple's iOS and Google's Android, which requires users to download apps. This will mean users of the Alibaba software are even more reliant on Internet access and subscriptions.
Some of the companies behind recent iPad 2 case listings at online retailers like Alibaba have claimed or strongly implied that the information was obtained directly from Foxconn's parent firm Hon Hai. Fullchance Industrial, one of these companies, said in an interview on Friday that it was actively working with Hon Hai and had schematics directly from the contract manufacturer. The details were "extremely accurate," he told the Wall Street Journal when asked.
Yahoo will work with Goldman Sachs to help it defend a takeover bid, unnamed sources said in a Bloomberg Thursday report. While no bids have yet been made, AOL has been rumored to be putting together an offer. Private equity firms, bankers and some Yahoo investors have also been trying to takeover Yahoo with the help of AOL of News Corp, the sources said.
AOL is in the very early stages of exploring a buyout of Yahoo, a leak this evening indicated. Private equity groups such as Blackstone Group and Silver Lake Partners have considered buying the search engine out but have reportedly talked to AOL about joining on a deal. Prospects mentioned to the WSJ would have China's Alibaba buy back Yahoo's 40 percent stake in its efforts to simplify a merger or even letting the normally much larger Yahoo buy AOL.
Fresh from supplier rumors of an iPod touch with FaceTime, a pair of part suppliers on AliBaba have now posted what they claim are fourth-generation iPod touch parts. Both a front panel and a complete LCD and digitizer show a design with a camera front and center above the touchscreen. Unlike the iPhone 4, there's no speaker to offset the camera.
Microsoft's proposed new transaction with Yahoo is likely to involve a breakup of the latter company, say sources allegedly close to the Wall Street Journal. The claim would have Microsoft buy Yahoo's search ad business and also divest itself of its Asian interests; in return, Microsoft would make a minority investment in the smaller Yahoo that results from the deal. A reason isn't given for selling off the Eastern assets, represented by AliBaba, though the China-based company voiced opposition to Microsoft in part due to fears of a management takeover following the abortive attempt to buy Yahoo as a whole.
Yahoo on Monday morning published a letter rebuffing Microsoft's imposed three-week deadline to accept a takeover bid, dismissing many of the claims made in the original argument. The formal rejection again states that Microsoft's $31 per share bid "substantially undervalues" Yahoo and adds that the actual value of the deal has decreased since it was suggested in late January, with Microsoft's share value having dropped while Yahoo's has increased.
Any potential Microsoft takeover of Yahoo is likely to require dealing with Chinese mega-reseller AliBaba before it can go ahead, says a source purportedly close to the latter company. As Yahoo owns nearly a 40 percent controlling stake in AliBaba, the Chinese firm is said to be pressing for greater influence from its management in any potential deal between Yahoo and an interested buyer, particularly in managing the transfer of shares.
