Fair warning: this is an unsubstantiated, nonspecific, and not entirely easy to swallow rumor. Today isn’t April 1st, however, and the rumor seems to have gotten the attention of a leading tech reporter and at least a few stock traders. So (for the umpteenth time) consider the possibility that Yahoo is on the path to getting acquired.
Michael Arrington writes, “A group of well known Silicon Valley executives and top investment bankers are putting together a Yahoo takeover deal that would be financed largely from debt supplied by Microsoft, we’ve learned from sources with knowledge of the proposed transaction.”
He then continues, “Under the terms of the proposed deal, the investment group would make a takeover bid for Yahoo at a relatively low premium of around 20% to its current price of around $13 per share, valuing the company at just over $20 billion.” Microsoft, meanwhile, would gain control of Yahoo’s search and advertising arms.
And those are about the only details available. Some mysterious organization might, at some point, pick up Yahoo with the help of Steve Ballmer, then. You can’t say the first sentence of this article didn’t warn you.
Still, people with money are throwing a little of it behind the idea; even as the Dow and Nasdaq are crashing, Yahoo’s stock has been lifted well above both of them (in terms of percentages) by the rumor.
