Needham: Yahoo Bidding Delay Means There Could Be More Buyers At Table

Yahoo! Inc. YHOO has reportedly extended the deadline for outside bids for its core businesses to April 18. After abandoning a plan to spin-off its large stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA, Yahoo is now auctioning off its core search, mail and news businesses.

Needham’s Laura Martin tells Benzinga that there are likely two potential reasons for the deadline extension: either more bidders have come to the table or a potential deal may have a more complicated structure than anticipated.

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Verizon Communications Inc VZ has been very open about its interest in Yahoo and even plans on including a stake in Yahoo Japan as part of its offer.

The intentions of another potential Yahoo bidder, Alphabet Inc GOOGL, are much less clear at this point. Bloomberg reports that Google is still on the fence about Yahoo, but other likely bidders AT&T Inc. T, Comcast Corporation CMCSA and Microsoft Corporation MSFT are all not interested.

Yahoo activist investor Starboard Value LP has been calling for the overthrow of the entire Yahoo board of directors, including CEO Marissa Mayer. Martin notes that Mayer and Yahoo management would likely want to keep their jobs following a buyout, but that seems like an unlikely scenario at this point.

Disclosure: the author is long BABA.