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Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

nytimes.com

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Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#21

Post by morgante »

chollida1 wrote: post #17

Yahoo had to do this. They had been hanging onto the belief that the IRS wouldn't tax their Alibaba spin out, a belief that they and their tax accountants alone believed. Most telling is that Yahoo was up after the markets closed on this news. Heck Bloomberg just sent me a note saying the sentiment of the news on Yahoo was very positive, even the machines like this news:) Sadly this probably means 3 things are going…

> 3) If Alibaba buys the holding portion of Yahoo( Alibaba and Yahoo Japan) then look for Alibaba to seek to aquire the rest of Yahoo Japan.

Isn't Yahoo Japan being spun off from the Alibaba portion? Ie. all that remains of the current "Yahoo" company will be its Alibaba stake.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#22

Post by morgante »

lmm wrote: post #18
benmorris wrote: post #10

I never understood farming out their search engine to Bing in the first place. Google literally prints money with their adwords search business. Seems instead of attempting to innovate they just threw in the towel and gave up? I just find it hard to believe that Google is the only way you can run a successful search engine.

Google's search engine runs at a loss to support their advertising business, and haven't had any serious competition in that sector since they bought Doubleclick (which looks a bit antitrusty in my eyes but what do I know). Yahoo doesn't have much of an ad business so there's not a lot of value in running their own search. They're good at their core business of being a portal, with some parts implemented themselves a…

> Google's search engine runs at a loss to support their advertising business

What? I have never heard that AdWords runs at a loss and find it incredibly dubious.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#23

Post by tootie »

jrcii wrote: post #15
wiremine wrote: post #12

Honest question: what has been Yahoo's core business for the last 15 years?

Their answer is "media" but I'm not sure what that means and apparently they aren't either.

My tech company has a media department. I've been in meetings with them. I still have no idea what they do.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#25

Post by [deleted] »

benmorris wrote: post #10

I never understood farming out their search engine to Bing in the first place. Google literally prints money with their adwords search business. Seems instead of attempting to innovate they just threw in the towel and gave up? I just find it hard to believe that Google is the only way you can run a successful search engine.

[deleted]

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#27

Post by lmm »

yeukhon wrote: post #4

Can someone explain why do business like to create new company? What are the benefits for the financial return other than having a book reporting individual revenue? In the end, aren't they going to be under the same parent company, which, if one wishes, can actually challenge and even overrule the child company CEO's decision behind the scene? HP, Google, now Yahoo.

In the general case, a basket of options is worth more than an option on a basket, and an equity share can be understood as a volatile asset and an option.

Usually there would not be a parent company but two separate companies (Google is a special case).

Yahoo's case is again very different; it's about avoiding tax rather than anyone else. The Alibaba stock that Yahoo currently holds is worth about $20 more per-share to Alibaba than to anyone else (provided it can make it into Alibaba's hands without getting taxed along the way, because Alibaba can take the shares off the market, whereas anyone else would (ultimately, one way or the other) have to pay the $20 of tax liability that they come with). So the puzzle is to find a way to allow Alibaba to buy those shares without having to buy the rest of Yahoo (which it evidently doesn't want to) and without doing anything that will constitute a taxable event for those shares.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#28

Post by AznHisoka »

lmm wrote: post #18
benmorris wrote: post #10

I never understood farming out their search engine to Bing in the first place. Google literally prints money with their adwords search business. Seems instead of attempting to innovate they just threw in the towel and gave up? I just find it hard to believe that Google is the only way you can run a successful search engine.

Google's search engine runs at a loss to support their advertising business, and haven't had any serious competition in that sector since they bought Doubleclick (which looks a bit antitrusty in my eyes but what do I know). Yahoo doesn't have much of an ad business so there's not a lot of value in running their own search. They're good at their core business of being a portal, with some parts implemented themselves a…

That's perhaps the most twisted/obtuse definition of "running at a loss".

Without their search engine, there is no advertising business.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#29

Post by fluxquanta »

plinkplonk wrote: post #19
chollida1 wrote: post #17

Yahoo had to do this. They had been hanging onto the belief that the IRS wouldn't tax their Alibaba spin out, a belief that they and their tax accountants alone believed. Most telling is that Yahoo was up after the markets closed on this news. Heck Bloomberg just sent me a note saying the sentiment of the news on Yahoo was very positive, even the machines like this news:) Sadly this probably means 3 things are going…

"Sadly this probably means 3 things are going to happen in the next 6 months" (Genuine question, not snark). Why "sadly"? Companies, even technical companies, get obsolescent and die all the time. Maybe it is just Yahoo's time to go.

I can't speak for chollida1, but for me as an "older millennial" (28) Yahoo was how I came to discover the internet.

Between the chats, instant messenger, search before Google, multiplayer games online with strangers (albeit simple ones like chess and poker), and Geocities it was my first taste of the types of things I do online to this day. I think it's okay to mourn a bit for how we remember the company.

Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses

#30

Post by mattlutze »

FussyZeus wrote: post #3

Oh just give this poor old dog the old Yeller treatment already. I don't know what's more sad, the fact that Yahoo has fallen from where it once was, or that it's falling so slowly and that it's new CEO, once thought to be it's saving grace, is letting the bleeding continue for seemingly as long as she possibly can. I can't imagine the morale issues in the trenches of Yahoo, it's gotta be just horrible in there.

As a sidebar, I've always kinda felt the name gets in the way.

Yahoo!

I feel silly saying it. I feel silly asking someone if they Yahoo!? It feels silly seeing it on stock tickers. Do I want to invest in a silly business? Work for a silly business?

The answers are yes and yes in an objective world, if the company is producing interesting products that are selling. But when it comes to marketing to users, investors and future employees alike, I'm not so sure it isn't a small hurdle in the way of that conversation.

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