The future for Internet services pioneer Yahoo remains uncertain, to put it mildly.
Currently a beleaguered takeover target sans visionary CEO (although one could argue recently fired Carl Bartz never served that role either), Asian e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba Group is apparently going to great lengths to re-acquire the stake Yahoo has in the company.
According to Reuters, Alibaba is seeking up to $4 billion in debt financing to bankroll buying back Yahoo’s 40 percent stake in the Chinese e-commerce behemoth.
Sources tell Reuters that financial advisory group Rothschild has delivered term sheets to banks, requesting underwritten proposals for the debt financing with a term of up to three years. One source said the term sheet involves commitments of $1 billion with an expected final hold of $400 million.
Alibaba is also one of the partners of a consortium that is plotting to swallow Yahoo whole, and founder Jack Ma recently said at an industry event that he would indeed be “very interested” in acquiring the global Internet giant.
According to a recent report from Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Alibaba has engaged in talks with Softbank, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital about making a bid for Yahoo.
Other bidders include a group formed by Silver Lake, Microsoft and Andreessen Horowitz in addition to a partnership between TPG and Greylock Partners. To be continued, no doubt.
Related: Alibaba.com Grows Revenues And Profits, Misses Expectations
Alibaba.com is a B2B e-commerce company. Alibaba’s primary business is to serve as a directory of Chinese manufacturers connecting them to other companies around the world looking for suppliers. According to iResearch, it was the largest online B2B company in China in 2006 based on the number of registered users and market share in China by revenue. Yahoo is currently a 40% share holder in the parent Alibaba Group. They operate two marketplaces; the first is an international marketplace based...
Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Stanford Ph.D. students David Filo and Jerry Yang. It has since evolved into a major internet brand with search, content verticals, and other web services. Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo!), incorporated in 1995, is a global Internet brand. To users, the Company provides owned and operated online properties and services (Yahoo! Properties, Offerings, or Owned and Operated sites). Yahoo! also extends its marketing platform and access to Internet users beyond Yahoo! Properties through its distribution network...
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