Re/code: Softbank Is Not Really Looking At Buying Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. YHOO can scratch off SoftBank on its list of potential buyers for its Internet assets, at least according to Re/code. Re/code's Kara Swisher, citing "sources close to the situation," stated that SoftBank has not held any formal discussions with Yahoo to acquire its internet assets. Swisher added that SoftBank is in "tense discussions" with Yahoo's management team over ending an annual payment that it makes to Yahoo. Yahoo Japan ended its relationship with Yahoo Search in favor of Google Search. As such, SoftBank has paid $120 million a year for getting out of the search deal, resulting in "free money for nothing" for Yahoo's cash coffers. Swisher added that the arrangement is ending in 2017, implying Yahoo's results will take a hit. However, SoftBank still makes annual payments for technology and branding - an agreement that was struck 20 years. "The deal was struck 20 years ago and things have changed," said one source about the 1996 agreement. "Yahoo Japan gets hardly any benefit from the relationship anymore." SoftBank may be looking for options to be free of those payments which leads to the theory that the company could be a buyer of all of Yahoo. Will this prove to be the ultimate outcome? "You can never count it out," Swisher concluded.