
Can Things Possibly Get Any Worse for Yahoo?
Does Yahoo! (YHOO) have any sunny days ahead of it?
The Internet giant reportedly pushed back its first-round bids and now it's being blamed for offering too little financial information to its prospective buyers during its auction.
The New York Timesreported Thursday that the Sunnyvale, Calif., company has not only provided discouraging projections for the current year in meetings with possible bidders, but also hasn't been open to discussing other aspects of the business as it moves forward with its sales process.
The development comes after Yahoo! delayed the deadline for first-round bids to April 18 from April 11, causing speculation about whether interested parties were demanding more information.
The digital media company put itself for sale in February following months of pressure from activist Jeffery Smith's Starboard Value. But the auction itself hasn't been a smooth ride for one of the ex-crown jewels of the dot.com era.
In fact, Starboard continues to butt heads with Yahoo! even as the company moves forward with its auction. Starboard most recently launched a proxy fight to swap out the entire board of directors by nominating a slate of nine members.
At the same time, analysts have previously said that there are plenty of prospective bidders for Yahoo! including Verizon Communications (VZ) - Get Report , Time (TIME) , Comcast (CMCSA) - Get Report , Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA) - Get Report , Walt Disney (DIS) - Get Report , KKR & Co. (KKR) - Get Report and Bain Capital, among others.
Earlier this week, Daily Mail & General Trust also confirmed its interest in bidding on Yahoo! while cautioning that talks are at an early stage and that there's no guarantee that any transaction will take place between the companies. SoftBank has also been pegged as a potential bidder for the Internet house.
Analysts have estimated that the core Yahoo! business, which will likely generate around $750 million in Ebitda this year, could garner between $3 billion to $5 billion. Verizon Communications, which has publicly expressed its plans to look at Yahoo!, has been viewed as a favorite bidder among some company followers.
"Yahoo's current turnaround plan focuses on three key platforms (mail, search and Tumblr), four key verticals (news, sports, finance and lifestyle) and two advertiser offerings (Gemini and BrightRoll)," wrote Macquarie Capital Inc. analysts in a Tuesday note. "In our view, Yahoo's strategy and assets fit well with Verizon's three-pronged plan, but execution is key."
Verizon's three-pronged strategy, which consists of its focus on ad tech, mobile video and content and display advertising segments, would be better-positioned to face competitors should the telco acquire Yahoo, they argued.
Shares of Yahoo! are down 1.24% Friday morning to $36.71 a piece, giving the company a $34.76 billion market capitalization. Year-to-date, the stock is up about 12%.









