YHOO - Yahoo! Inc.

Yahoo Is Now Streaming Live MLB Games, for Free

It’s opening day for most Major League Baseball teams today, and you’re ready to eat some Cracker Jacks and catch America’s favorite pastime. Sure, you could buy a ticket and head to a stadium. You could turn on your TV and flip through the channels. If you’re a super fan, you can subscribe to the MLB’s online service.

Or, for some games this season, you can go to Yahoo. Yahoo Sports plans to livestream one MLB game each day for free—180 games in all, complete with commercial breaks. (Per usual, live games will be blocked in their local markets.)

For the most part, Yahoo may not feature very prominently in your life. The company has struggled to maintain its grip on our digital attention as Google, Facebook, and others consume most of our time. But millions of sports fans still come to Yahoo for sports. Yahoo features sports reporting and commentary as well as a hugely popular fantasy sports league. For baseball fans, the MLB “Free Game of the Day” feature may be another draw.

This isn’t the first time Yahoo has streamed sports live in its quest to draw in sports fans. And the company’s continued efforts in this area points to a bigger future where we may be able to catch live sports—pay TV’s last line of defense—beyond the walls of costly cable contracts. Yahoo has also streamed NHL games, PGA featured holes, and the Internet’s first NFL game.

LINK - http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/tech...-streaming-live-mlb-games-for-free/ar-BBro6dx

 

Verizon Said to Proceed With Yahoo Bid as Google Weighs Offer

(Bloomberg) -- Verizon Communications Inc. plans to make a first-round bid for Yahoo Inc.’s Web business next week, and is willing to acquire the company’s Yahoo Japan Corp. stake to help sweeten the offer, according to people familiar with the matter.

Google, the main division of Alphabet Inc., is also considering bidding for Yahoo’s core business, a separate person said.

Potential suitors AT&T Inc. and Comcast have decided against bidding, some of the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions aren’t public. Microsoft Corp., which failed with a hostile bid for Yahoo in 2008, won’t bid this time, another person said.

Time Inc. is still evaluating a bid, while private equity funds Bain and TPG -- among others -- are also planning to make a run at the business, either alone or by backing a strategic acquirer, the people said.

While the buyout firms haven’t yet paired themselves with a strategic buyer, they are open to the idea of doing so, the people said.

First-round bids for the company’s main Web assets are due April 11, a person with knowledge of the matter said last week.

Three Banks

Verizon and its subsidiary AOL Inc. are working with at least three financial advisers on the Yahoo bid, said three of the people. Hiring so many banks is a sign that Verizon is serious about its takeover plans -- it has said since late last year that it was interested in buying some or all of Yahoo.

Verizon, which has a market value of about $213 billion, could give the Yahoo Japan stake to its shareholders or sell it, one of the people said.

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo would prefer to sell its 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, worth about $8.5 billion, along with the core business, Bloomberg reported last month. The valuation of the combined assets would make it more difficult for private equity firms to finance a bid for both parts.
Representatives for Yahoo, AT&T, Comcast, Time, TPG and Verizon declined to comment. Representatives for Bain and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Revenue Drop

Based on the financial information that it’s seen, Verizon values Yahoo’s core business at less than $8 billion, one of the people said. Verizon, as well as some private equity firms, met with Microsoft last month to talk about potential funding for a bid, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

Microsoft hasn’t committed any funding and is unlikely to provide anything more than a token investment to the winning bidder, one of the people said.

A spokesman for Microsoft declined to comment.

Yahoo’s projected revenue will drop almost 15 percent and earnings by more than 20 percent for 2016, according to a slide deck it released to potential bidders, Re/code reported Wednesday.

Verizon would replace Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Marni Walden, Verizon’s executive vice president, who would run a combined Yahoo and AOL, two of the people said.

Still on Deck

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. has always had tepid interest in buying Yahoo, two of the people said. So far, discussions have centered around Yahoo Japan, in which Softbank is the majority shareholder, paying a reduced licensing fee to Yahoo.

The two sides are in active discussions to lower this fee, which stands at three percent of gross revenue, before any deal to sell Yahoo is announced. Yahoo Japan has argued the fee is too high because Yahoo hasn’t invested in technology the Asian company can use, causing the brand to suffer, one of the people said.

A Softbank representative declined to comment.

Yahoo’s Alternatives

Yahoo said it would explore strategic alternatives, including selling its main Internet operations, earlier this year after scrapping a long-time plan to spin off its valuable Asian assets. The company’s stock has declined about 20 percent in the past 12 months as turnaround efforts led by CEO Mayer stalled and sales have sagged, leaving the company vulnerable to activist investors.

Last month, CFO Ken Goldman said the board committee working on a possible sale of the core operations is “more active than anyone can possibly believe.”

Activist Starboard Value, a longtime Yahoo critic, said in March it was fed up with the Web portal’s leadership and called for the board to be completely replaced.

The activist fund, which recently increased its Yahoo holdings to 1.7 percent, said the board has failed to deliver results. The current board can’t be trusted to weigh the options that will best serve investors, and it’s important for the activist to be involved to ensure a “full and fair sale process,” according to a letter from Starboard CEO Jeffrey Smith. Smith has put his own name in as one of the hedge fund’s director nominees to the board.

LINK - http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...h-yahoo-bid-as-google-weighs-offer/ar-BBru6le

 

Yahoo extends deadline for bids by a week

Yahoo Inc (YHOO) has extended the deadline to bid for its businesses by a week to April 18, technology news website Re/code reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Yahoo, whose shares were up 1.7 percent in early trading, had set an April 11 deadline for preliminary bids, which could yield a deal by June or July, the Wall Street Journal had reported.

Yahoo has launched an auction of its core Internet business, which includes search, mail and news sites, after abandoning its plan to spin-off its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA).

The company has been struggling to keep up with Alphabet Inc's (GOOG) Google unit and Facebook Inc (FB) in the battle for online advertisers.

Verizon Communications Inc (VZ) is ready to make a bid for Yahoo's Web business, and hopes to make a merger more successful by also making an offer for a stake in Yahoo Japan Corp (4689.T), Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

Google is also mulling a bid for Yahoo's core business, Bloomberg reported, citing a source.

However, Re/code's Kara Swisher said that a Google bid was "highly unlikely."

Yahoo is also under pressure from activist investor Starboard Value LP which moved to overthrow the entire board of the company, including Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, last month.

Yahoo spokeswoman Rebecca Neufeld said the company had no comment.

Yahoo shares, which have risen about 9 percent since the beginning of the year, were up 1.4 percent at $36.67 in early trading.

LINK - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-bids-deadline-idUSKCN0X51F0

 

Yahoo may get buyout bid from U.K.’s Daily Mail

The parent company of the Daily Mail, the British newspaper and global tabloid website, is in talks with several private-equity firms about a possible bid for Yahoo Inc., people familiar with the matter said.

Yahoo has set an April 18 deadline for bids. While as many as 40 firms have expressed some interest in Yahoo’s businesses, the pool of serious bidders is expected to narrow considerably.

Read: Yahoo’s financial maze may give activist investor the upper hand

Daily Mail & General Trust PLC’s potential bid could take one of two forms, the people familiar with the matter said. In one scenario, a private-equity partner would aim to acquire the entirety of Yahoo’s core web business, with the Mail taking over the news and media properties.

Those assets include verticals such as Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports plus Yahoo News and a video operation whose big star is Katie Couric. Yahoo has been retrenching in those businesses. In February the company closed seven digital magazines including sites dedicated to food, parenting and health.

In the other scenario, the private-equity firm would acquire Yahoo’s core web business and merge its media and news properties with the Mail’s online operations. The merged units would form a new company that would be run by the Mail and give a larger equity stake to the Mail’s parent company than under the first scenario.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

 

next move over $37 will be interesting to watch!

 

Who would have ever thought that one day he Daily Mail would be bidding on Yahoo?

What is this world coming to?

 

Oh come on! A Trump presidency will be the funniest thing that has happened a long time!

 

That cash could be used to fund a wall!

Not just any wall, but the most amazing wall you will ever see!

 

My concern with Trump is for our national security. Seeing how the guy relates to people, I'd be terrified hearing him in negotiations with some of the more unstable leaders of the world.

 

I think he will hire the best advisors, but who's to say that egomaniac will listen to them?

 

50MA just crossed over the 200MA for a bullish signal

 

Its a trap!