
The flailing search company is scrambling to find the highest bidder for its core assets.
Search company Yahoo has just completed the first round of bidding for its core assets, and it could be as soon as next week that bidders find out if they’ve made it to the next round. According to a report from Bloomberg, the first round of bids valued the company’s core assets between $4 billion and $8 billion.
Yahoo advisors are hard at work this weekend pouring over bids from more than ten interested parties. The company hopes to narrow down the field of potential bidders to move on to a second round of negotiations as soon as possible.
Second round bidders will gain access to internal documents and the management to help the valuation process. People familiar with the bidding process say that a final bidder could be announced as soon as next month.
The company recently released its first quarter earnings statement for 2016, and CEO Marisa Mayer confirmed that Yahoo is plowing ahead with efforts that “reflect clear, decisive action to move forward quickly and in a way that we believe will yield enhanced value.”
Up for sale are the company’s online operations – the search technology that fell into second place behind Google years ago and struggled to break back through with a service people wanted.
Bidders for the company reportedly include Verizon, YP Holdings LC, TPG, and a group spearheaded by Bain Capital LP and Vista Equity Partners LLC. Sources suggest that bidders on the higher end of the spectrum have not spent as much time with the company and may be overvaluing it with their offers.
The company has been searching for a buyer for some time after one final push to gain back a share of web traffic using targeted advertisements and questionable data collection practices. The effort to sell off the company’s core assets represents one last effort to derive value from a search engine that’s been long forgotten.
A press release describing the company’s most recent earnings statement can be found here.
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