This could be the beginning of the end for Yahoo, as the company’s board of directors will discuss the possibility of selling its core internet business at a meeting later this week. The news comes during an extremely tense period for Yahoo and CEO Marissa Mayer.
People with inside knowledge of the situation have stated that the board of directors will also discuss whether or not to proceed with plans to dump more than $30 billion of its holdings in Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba. Both actions are very possible, considering the dire financial situation of the company.
The internet business of Yahoo represents the core of the company. It includes services like Yahoo Mail, news and sports websites. If the company does decide to sell its internet services, it will likely attract both media and telecommunication companies and private equity firms.
Representatives from Yahoo have yet to comment on the situation.
Before coming to Yahoo, Marissa Mayer was an executive and key spokesperson for Google. When she stepped in as CEO, Yahoo was expected to experience a fast turnaround. Instead, the company has struggled to increase its advertising business, and it has been largely unable to compete with Google and Facebook.
Mayer’s strategy of pushing mobile, video, native and social media advertisements has generally failed to increase company revenue. Additionally, the decision to purchase social blogging website Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013 has since proven to be a regrettable move for Yahoo. Investors have mostly stated that Mayer vastly overpaid for a website that is not profitable.
Earlier this year in September, Yahoo experienced a snag as it tried to sell its stake in Alibaba. This occurred when the IRS denied Yahoo’s request to grant the deal tax exemption status. Despite this, Yahoo is so desperate for money that it might have to proceed with the deal any way.
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