الرئيسية
By Nadia Damouni, Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are
preparing a bid for all of Yahoo Inc with Asian partners in a deal that
could value the Internet company at about $25 billion, a source familiar
with the matter said on Wednesday.
The potential bid by the
consortium, which would include China's Alibaba Group and Japan's
Softbank Corp, has not yet been finalized, the source and two other
people familiar with the matter said.
Chinese e-commerce giant
Alibaba, whose primary interest is in buying back a 40 percent stake
owned by Yahoo, is keeping its options open and said it has not decided
whether to participate in a bid for all of Yahoo.
"Alibaba Group
has not made a decision to be part of a whole company bid for Yahoo,"
Alibaba Group spokesman, John Spelich, said in an emailed statement on
Wednesday.
Yahoo's shares, which closed at $15.71 on the New York
Stock Exchange on Wednesday, gained 6.4 percent to $16.72 in
after-hours trading, valuing the company at more than $20 billion.
"Alibaba
definitely wants to get its stake back from Yahoo, so whatever that can
make that happen, they will try for it," said Hong Kong-based JPMorgan
analyst, Dick Wei, adding Alibaba may finance the deal by taking on more
debt or finding a strategic buyer.
Alibaba, run by its founder
and billionaire CEO Jack Ma, has ties with some of the world's most
prominent private equity funds and a group of investors including Silver
Lake purchased a 5 percent stake worth $1.6 billion in early November.
A
bid for Yahoo at more than $20 per share would mean a deal value of
about $25 billion based on 1.24 billion shares outstanding, potentially
making it the largest leveraged buyout in recent years.
Blackstone, Bain and Softbank declined to comment, while Yahoo representatives were not immediately available to comment.
HEAT ON THE BOARD
Although
a bid for all of Yahoo is not yet on the table, the latest twist turns
up the heat on Yahoo's board, which has received at least two offers for
a minority stake in the company according to people familiar with the
matter. One offer came from a consortium of Silver Lake and Microsoft
Corp, and another from TPG Capital. Silver Lake, Microsoft and TPG have
declined to comment.
Meanwhile, private equity firm Thomas H. Lee
Partners is interested in buying the U.S. operations of Yahoo, people
familiar with the matter told Reuters previously. Providence Equity
Partners and Hellman & Friedman are also interested in a potential
Yahoo deal. Thomas H. Lee, Providence and Hellman & Friedman have
declined to comment on the situation.
Bain and Blackstone have a
track record of teaming up for joint investments. In 2008, the two
buyout firms, in partnership with NBC Universal, bought the Weather
Channel.
In 2006, the private equity firms teamed up for a $6
billion buyout of Michaels Stores Inc, the biggest U.S. arts and crafts
retailer.
Internet pioneer Yahoo has seen its growth stagnate in
recent years due to competition from Google Inc and Facebook and is
currently without a permanent CEO as it tries to regain relevance.
Yahoo's
board fired CEO Carol Bartz in September and started a strategic
review, which has been complicated by the different agendas of players
with a say in the situation, including its Asian partners, co-founders
Jerry Yang and David Filo, the board and shareholders.
Yang has
been exploring a deal with private equity firms to take the company
private, according to sources, in part because that would represent his
best chance of remaining involved with the company.
(Additional
reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Soyoung Kim in New York and Melanie
Lee in Shanghai; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Carol Bishopric and Matt
Driskill)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are
preparing a bid for all of Yahoo Inc with Asian partners in a deal that
could value the Internet company at about $25 billion, a source familiar
with the matter said on Wednesday.
The potential bid by the
consortium, which would include China's Alibaba Group and Japan's
Softbank Corp, has not yet been finalized, the source and two other
people familiar with the matter said.
Chinese e-commerce giant
Alibaba, whose primary interest is in buying back a 40 percent stake
owned by Yahoo, is keeping its options open and said it has not decided
whether to participate in a bid for all of Yahoo.
"Alibaba Group
has not made a decision to be part of a whole company bid for Yahoo,"
Alibaba Group spokesman, John Spelich, said in an emailed statement on
Wednesday.
Yahoo's shares, which closed at $15.71 on the New York
Stock Exchange on Wednesday, gained 6.4 percent to $16.72 in
after-hours trading, valuing the company at more than $20 billion.
"Alibaba
definitely wants to get its stake back from Yahoo, so whatever that can
make that happen, they will try for it," said Hong Kong-based JPMorgan
analyst, Dick Wei, adding Alibaba may finance the deal by taking on more
debt or finding a strategic buyer.
Alibaba, run by its founder
and billionaire CEO Jack Ma, has ties with some of the world's most
prominent private equity funds and a group of investors including Silver
Lake purchased a 5 percent stake worth $1.6 billion in early November.
A
bid for Yahoo at more than $20 per share would mean a deal value of
about $25 billion based on 1.24 billion shares outstanding, potentially
making it the largest leveraged buyout in recent years.
Blackstone, Bain and Softbank declined to comment, while Yahoo representatives were not immediately available to comment.
HEAT ON THE BOARD
Although
a bid for all of Yahoo is not yet on the table, the latest twist turns
up the heat on Yahoo's board, which has received at least two offers for
a minority stake in the company according to people familiar with the
matter. One offer came from a consortium of Silver Lake and Microsoft
Corp, and another from TPG Capital. Silver Lake, Microsoft and TPG have
declined to comment.
Meanwhile, private equity firm Thomas H. Lee
Partners is interested in buying the U.S. operations of Yahoo, people
familiar with the matter told Reuters previously. Providence Equity
Partners and Hellman & Friedman are also interested in a potential
Yahoo deal. Thomas H. Lee, Providence and Hellman & Friedman have
declined to comment on the situation.
Bain and Blackstone have a
track record of teaming up for joint investments. In 2008, the two
buyout firms, in partnership with NBC Universal, bought the Weather
Channel.
In 2006, the private equity firms teamed up for a $6
billion buyout of Michaels Stores Inc, the biggest U.S. arts and crafts
retailer.
Internet pioneer Yahoo has seen its growth stagnate in
recent years due to competition from Google Inc and Facebook and is
currently without a permanent CEO as it tries to regain relevance.
Yahoo's
board fired CEO Carol Bartz in September and started a strategic
review, which has been complicated by the different agendas of players
with a say in the situation, including its Asian partners, co-founders
Jerry Yang and David Filo, the board and shareholders.
Yang has
been exploring a deal with private equity firms to take the company
private, according to sources, in part because that would represent his
best chance of remaining involved with the company.
(Additional
reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Soyoung Kim in New York and Melanie
Lee in Shanghai; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Carol Bishopric and Matt
Driskill)