Yahoo has been under the microscope in the past couple of weeks following the web site's dismissal of its CEO Carol Bartz. Now Business Insider claims via an unnamed source that Microsoft is at least considering a takeover offer of the company. The article quotes the unnamed source as saying, "Yahoo is a lot more interesting. If it comes into play, then at least their U.S. media business is a pretty interesting asset." Microsoft tried to purchase Yahoo a few years ago but the two companies were unable to reach an agreement.
Bloomberg reports that Yahoo's board of directors is considering several bids from companies for a possible sale of some or all of its divisions. One of those companies is the private equity firm Silver Lake, according to the report. Silver Lake's bid would have the company buy out Yahoo. Then it would sell off its Asian investments and either attempt to revamp the rest of the company or sell it off to another party.
Yahoo's board of directors met earlier this week to discuss its options with the investment bank Allen and Company. It also discussed searching for a new CEO. Carol Bartz was fired last week over the phone by Yahoo's board and later said in an interview that the company's board "f***** me over." Last week there were rumors of a possible merger between Yahoo and one of its main rivals AOL but other media reports denied that Yahoo was interested in such a merger offer. A Yahoo stockholder, Third Point LLC, has called for Yahoo's board to resign. It claims new board members would offer "fresh eyes, relevant industry expertise and increased investor alignment to the table."
Yahoo still has one of the biggest and most visited web sites on the Internet. Bloomberg's story says that according to ComScore, Yahoo's site had 674 million unique visitors in July.
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