Yahoo! Inc. YHOO is actively looking for buyers to acquire its Internet properties. But, which of its many Internet properties are for sale? All of them? Some of them?
Recode's Kara Swisher attempted to answer this difficult question that continues to confuse investors.
Swisher pointed out that Yahoo has three major groups of assets. The first, its core business, includes search, advertising and media assets. Then there is Yahoo's patent portfolio and finally its real estate assets.
Simple enough, right?
Verizon Communications Inc. VZ has no interest in Yahoo's patents and real estate nor does it want to buy them with the hopes of re-selling the properties themselves. Meanwhile, private equity firms think they can win Yahoo's patents and real estate at a good price, so their bids are higher than Verizon's bid is.
To make matters more complicated, sources close to the situation told Recode that Yahoo and its "platoons" of bankers are trying to pair up private equity firms with strategic partners to create a "competitive process" and not an image of a "fire sale."
"This deal is not one in which everyone's really enthusiastic, since there is a giant question of how quickly the business is deteriorating," a bidder was quoted as saying. "If you win, you might lose and vice versa."
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