Yahoo Dumps Plan to Sell Alibaba

Board moves instead to sell off core businesses
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 9, 2015 7:11 AM CST
Yahoo Dumps Plan to Sell Alibaba
In this 2014 file photo, Yahoo President and CEO Marissa Mayer speaks during the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.   (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

In something of an abrupt about-face, Yahoo is scrapping its original plan to spin off its prized stake in China's Alibaba Group and will instead break off the rest of its business into a new company. The change of heart announced Wednesday comes after Yahoo's board met last week to review the proposed Alibaba spin-off, as well as CEO Marissa Mayer's stalled attempts to turn around one of the Internet's best-known companies. The move is what the Wall Street Journal calls "a blow" to Mayer's turnaround, and it prolongs "the uncertainty of a 20-year-old Internet company fighting for survival."

Yahoo said its board will now look at alternatives to separate the Alibaba stake, focusing specifically on a reverse spin-off. The company said in the reverse spin-off, Yahoo assets and liabilities other than the Alibaba stake would be transferred to a newly formed company. The end result would be two separate, publicly traded companies. (More Yahoo stories.)

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