Wait, so since they can't spin off the Alibaba stake tax free, they're going to spin off Yahoo (and pay taxes on that lesser-valued spin off)? Shareholders would then own 'YHOO' which are basically BABA pass-through stocks, and whatever other company Yahoo becomes?
Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
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Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#272Yahoo 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.
You are correct according to the news reports I read. See 6th paragraph of this Reuters article for example:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-divestiture-idUSKBN0...
Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
The obvious question is, if it is so clever, why is it plan B?
Plan A, while fairly conventional, got shot down by the IRS. http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-09/yahoo-s-ali...
So, the magic plan failed and now they are going with a real plan?
Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
The past 4 years couldn't have been easy on her. Isn't that why CEOs are paid the big bucks? I mean, a Yahoo whose sole purpose is to be a tax-efficient vehicle for holding shares in Alibaba is not the endgame anyone envisioned, and let's be honest, doesn't really need a CEO either... Not that she ever has to work again.
CEOs get the big bucks because they are better than everyone else at taking credit for business success irrespective of how much control they actually had over the factors contributing most to those successes[1]. They've also been the most effective group at raising the baseline replacement cost of their position. This limits the amount that can be saved by booting a CEO for a cheaper option. So there's a feedback lo…
A single point of failure can demand pretty much whatever it wants.
Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
OTOH if the CEO is excited about a tax shenanigan i will not be excited by the company.
Yahoo's stake in Alibaba is by far the most valuable part of Yahoo. The "tax shenanigan" itself is worth more than Yahoo's core business! If she can't get excited about the majority of shareholder value she needs to step down ASAP.
because the CEO can do so much more than an accountant?
do you also fire your doctors because they don't pray?
the CEO should be rallying troops and making deals. well, at least that is the excuse for their obscene salaries and bonuses.
Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#276Used Yahoo paid email for several years in the 00s. I've not used Yahoo for anything else. Never did understand what is their business model.
remember how you used everything form yahoo when you were first online? well, there are billions of people just getting their first online experience.
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Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have variously seen the upper boundary for Gen X as 1976, 1979, and 1982. Having been born toward the end of 1980 and comparing myself to those born in 1970 and 1990 (squarely in the middle of their respective generations), I find myself having far more in common with the latter. Hence why I consider myself a millennial. But never will I give up the skinny jeans!
The Strauss & Howe definition, which I find most useful for cultural purposes, puts the line between '81 and '82. With that said, it's been my observation that people born within a few years of the line in each direction -- as far as '77 to '88 -- tend to share the same values and have characteristics of both Millenials and Xers (born in '84 here, and I'll gladly apply that description to myself). I've also seen peop…
There are probably other things that play into the stereotypes but being born '89 and later maps pretty well to never really knowing a pre-Web and pre-Mobile world. A somewhat primitive version of it in their tween/early teen years to be sure but an online world nonetheless.
Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#278What I want to know is, how has Yahoo lasted so long? Google has beaten them at search, maps, email, and news. And their homepages is still confusing web 1.0 jumbled mess. What do people still use Yahoo for anyway?
Yahoo's survival is a legacy of it's huge success in the late 1990s when it was the most successful company on the Internet. You are likely young and did not experience Yahoo's almost Google like dominance at the time.
First, while Yahoo's core "portal" business model was losing market share to search (i.e. Google) the overall market for online advertising was growing rapidly which masked it's weakness for many years.
Second, it invested it's huge early profits into the growing Internet both in the US and internationally. Most of these investments were failures but two were HUGE successes: Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.
Yes, Yahoo is a declining platform but still has millions of users for all of the things you list. Like it predecessor AOL there is a very long tail as people are creatures of habit and don't like to change email or start page, etc.
Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#279Respect, old boy Cringely actually got this one right: http://www.cringely.com/2015/11/30/soylent-green-now-made-wi...
Thanks for posting this. Great analysis about IBM and Google Cloud in this article as well.
Re: Yahoo to Spin Off Its Core Businesses
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did she? Maybe I'm a bit more sceptical, but what did she actually achieve? 1. She failed at putting Yahoo back on the map. She spent billions on acquiring businesses that bring in close to no revenue. Maybe it's a great place to work, but if there's no money coming in, it won't stay great long. 2. She failed at financial engineering; she couldn't even get a tax free spinoff through. I would've been happy to cut her…
> 2. She failed at financial engineering; she couldn't even get a tax free spinoff through. She managed to keep a part of Alibaba stake. This reverse spin off will also be tax free.
I don't follow your logic. That's like saying the new manager for the department store managed to keep the roof of the store intact while losing everything under the roof.