This Is Why Yahoo!’s Alibaba Spinoff Is Now Too Risky -- Tech Roundup

Starboard Value piled onto long-suffering Internet giant Yahoo!, saying it should dump its Alibaba spinoff plan.
By Mathew Schwartz ,

On Wednesday, the bad news for Yahoo! (YHOO) was activist investor Bob Peck of SunTrust was warning the tax bill for spinning off the rest of its Alibaba (BABA) - Get Report stake could drain most of the value out of the spinoff company, Aabaco.

Today, it's Starboard Value turning the screws on the long-suffering Internet giant, saying it should dump the Alibaba spinoff plan, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Though Starboard had formerly pressed for the move, and it says it's not sure Peck is right about how the IRS would rule on the deal, it now views the spinoff as too risky.

Starboard's alternative plan? Yahoo! should sell off the part of itself that most people think of as Yahoo! -- its web properties. Of course, the last time Starboard floated this idea it liked AOL as the buyer. Now that Verizon (VZ) - Get Report has acquired AOL, that's off the table. No suggestions were forthcoming about a suggested buyer this time.

 Yahoo! closed Thursday down 1.1% at $32.62. 

Facebook (FB) - Get Report isn't just interested in winning eyeballs online -- it wants more power in the arena that underlies the web: networking hardware. On Thursday, we officially learned that it's working on a new 100-gigabit networking switch it aims to sell in competition with products from the likes of market leader Cisco (CSCO) - Get Report , Business Insider reports.

This is Facebook's second -- and faster -- foray into network switches. The type it's working on differs from Cisco's products by shifting features from the hardware to the software, which lets them operate at higher speeds. Interestingly, Facebook is donating the designs to the Open Compute Project, and making the operating software for the switches available free.

The long-term goal: Help make computer networks more flexible. We'll click "like" on that.

Facebook closed Thursday down 1.4% at $106.26. Cisco was up 0.9% at $27.37. 

Back in Facebook's core gig -- keeping us connected socially -- interesting news today of a new tool it's launching to ease the digital pain of a breakup.

Now, when you change your relationship status, you'll be give new options to "see less" of your ex, and limit what they see from your feed, among other things. Best part, your former amour won't be made aware of the changes, and you won't have to unfriend them. Call it the social media version of "I think we just need some space." 

People who bought the Square (SQ) - Get Reportinitial public offering got paid rapidly after the stock debuted Thursday. Shares of the mobile payment specialist rose from its offering price of $9, trading briefly above $14 before settling down to close at $13.08, a gain of 45%.

The IPO price was lower than the expected $11 to $13 range. The company and some of its shareholders sold a total of 27 million shares in the offering, raising $243 million.  

Speaking of paying back investors, chipmaker Intel (INTC) - Get Report announced at its annual investor meeting Thursday that it is boosting its annual dividend by 8 cents a share to $1.04 -- an 8.3% increase to take effect with its first quarter 2016 payout. The move, according to CFO Stacy Smith, "reflects confidence in the strategy and Intel's ongoing commitment to create value and return cash to shareholders."

Intel closed Thursday up 3.4% at $34.30.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.

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