Silver Lake Wants a Piece of Yahoo!, Willing to Pay $16.60 a Share

Wait, you mean someone actually sees value in the dying media company?

According to

, the answer is yes. Citing “people with knowledge of the matter,” Bloomberg said that a group of investors – led by private-equity firm Silver Lake – offered to buy a minority stake in Yahoo!

for “about” $16.60 a share. Silver Lake is apparently working with Microsoft

, as well as Andreessen Horowitz, to complete the share acquisition. Microsoft is reportedly aiming to use a minority holding to protect the 10-year web search agreement it signed with Yahoo. But one of Bloomberg's sources claims that the offer is lower than the one made by TPG Capital, another private-equity form interested in acquiring a piece of the media company. Blackstone Group

and KKR

are among the private-equity firms considering a bid for Yahoo. Bloomberg added that another source claims that Alibaba Group Holding is monitoring the situation and may enter the bidding in an effort to buy back the stake in itself that is owned by Yahoo. Hamilton Faber, an analyst with Atlantic Equities LLP, told Bloomberg that the offer is “disappointing. “Investors who've been buying Yahoo recently were hoping for a significant premium and a takeout of the full company, and this falls short on both counts,” he said. Some of these offers could be made public at a board meeting that is scheduled to take place later today, one of Bloomberg's sources claimed.