{"id":36682,"date":"2011-10-23T00:57:27","date_gmt":"2011-10-22T22:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=36682"},"modified":"2011-10-24T09:59:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-24T07:59:00","slug":"google-mulling-role-in-possible-yahoo-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/36682-google-mulling-role-in-possible-yahoo-bid.html","title":{"rendered":"Google mulling role in possible Yahoo bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google Inc.<\/a> has talked to at least two-private equity firms about potentially assisting them to finance a deal to buy Yahoo Inc.’s<\/a> core business, according to the story, which cited a person familiar with the matter, and did not identify the source.<\/p>\n

The Journal said Google and prospective partners have held early-stage discussions, but haven’t assembled a formal proposal. The source said Google may not end up pursuing a bid.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Mountain View, California-based Google declined to comment to The Associated Press. A spokeswoman for Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo said the company doesn’t comment “on rumor or speculation.”<\/p>\n

Messages that The AP left on Saturday with representatives of Google, based in Mountain View, California, were not returned.<\/p>\n

Any involvement by Google in a Yahoo acquisition would likely draw antitrust scrutiny from regulators, because of both companies’ shares in the Internet search business.<\/p>\n

The report came as investors have recently driven up Yahoo’s stock price, betting that the company will sell itself, either in whole or in part. Closing Friday at $16.12 apiece, the shares have gained nearly 25 percent since Sept. 6, when CEO Carol Bartz<\/a> was fired. They are up 45 percent from the stock’s 52-week low reached in early August.<\/p>\n

There has been repeated speculation that the company might be sold to an assortment of buyout firms that prey upon troubled companies. Alibaba Group, a Chinese Internet company of which Yahoo owns a 43 percent stake, has expressed interest if it can line up the financing for a deal that would likely require a bid of more than $20 billion, the current market value of Yahoo’s shares. Microsoft Corp.<\/a>, which offered to buy Yahoo for $47.5 billion in 2008 before withdrawing the bid, also has been mentioned as a possible suitor.<\/p>\n

Since Bartz’ firing, Tim Morse<\/a> has been filling in as Yahoo’s interim CEO while also working as chief financial officer. After the company’s third-quarter earnings announcement on Tuesday, Morse told analysts that he couldn’t discuss what the company’s next step might be or when it might take it.<\/p>\n

Yahoo is under pressure because its revenue has been falling at a time when the Internet advertising market has been growing as rivals such as Google and Facebook gain market share.<\/p>\n

Although it’s still recognized around the world, Yahoo’s brand has been losing its luster as people increasingly embrace social networks such as Facebook<\/a> and short-messaging service Twitter<\/a> to keep track of what’s going on instead of relying on a media hub like Yahoo’s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Google is exploring the possibility of helping to finance a possible deal by others to acquire Internet search company Yahoo, according to a report published by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":27599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18],"tags":[36,167,2744],"class_list":["post-36682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-internet","tag-active","tag-google","tag-yahoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36682"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36684,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36682\/revisions\/36684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}