Yahoo renounces the spin-off of the stake it still holds in Alibaba and works on an alternative: to create a new company in which to transfer all the assets except the Chinese e-commerce giant stake, which is equal to 15% and is worth 32 billion dollars.
The company headed by Marissa Mayer, which announced the spin-off last January, has chosen to abandon the spin-off "after careful examination and evaluation of the long-term interest of the shareholders", reads a note released today. The uncertainty regarding costs weighed above all on the decision, since the American authorities have never clarified whether the eventual spin-off would be tax-free.
According to Maynard Webb, president of the internet services giant, the spin off "would have been tax free for Yahoo and the shareholders: however, given the developments since the original plan was announced, we have decided to suspend it".
The board of directors, which unanimously agreed to suspend the spin-off, "will now consider alternative transactions to unbundle the stake, in particular focusing on a reverse spinoff", under which assets and liabilities other than the Alibaba stake would be transferred to a newly formed company.
This is a sharp change in Yahoo's strategy. In recent months, in fact, Mayer had repeatedly expressed himself publicly against the sale of the company's core assets and in favor of the spinoff of the Alibaba share, but the board gave in to pressure from some investors, including the activist fund Starboard Value, which he had underlined how the spinoff presented too many risks, asking instead to explore the sale of fundamental assets, such as the internet ones.
Last week the Wall Street Journal had written that Yahoo may soon sell its core business, including historical services such as email and news.
