Yahoo CFO On Unicorns, Opportunities Post-Alibaba Stake Spinoff And The Fed Rate Hike

While investors were speculating what Yahoo! Inc. YHOO will do with its core business following the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA stake spinoff, the company surprised many on Wednesday by announcing the NFL deal.

Yahoo CFO Kenneth Goldman was on CNBC Thursday to discuss where he sees opportunities for Yahoo going forward and to share his opinion toward the valuation of tech companies.

Mobile And Video

Goldman sees a lot of opportunity for Yahoo in video and mobile. He said, "You will find over time that the advertising in digital, I believe, will end up getting very closer to the amount of usage you see on mobile and video.

"And so over time we see that [..] you will see much more video content, sports content, on over-the-top (OTT) and mobile and so forth."

Related Link: UBS Frames Yahoo's Downside Off Tax Fears

Private Markets Overvalued, Public Not Yet

On the astounding valuations some of the Silicon Valley’s tech companies and late-stage startups are seeing, Goldman said, "It is a little crazy. Someone told me that they look at some of the late rounds where the enterprise value is greater than the preference stack is the term going on.

"So, it’s an interesting perspective that 'how real are some of the private valuations?'"

He continued, "They talk about unicorns now, companies valued over a billion dollars or whatever. My own sense is the public market is reasonably thoughtful. You look at the Nasdaq, 17–18 PEs and so, not like the 2000-period where it was actually almost a 100."

Fed Will Raise

Goldman also discussed the Fed’s policy and told CNBC that he sees the Fed raising rates perhaps this year and because of that "you will see investors think about capital allocation more thoughtfully," he concluded.