Daily Mail Looks For Partners To Bid For Yahoo

Daily Mail & General Trust Plc, the U.K.-based media group reportedly said Wednesday it was in talks to partner with other parties to bid for Yahoo Inc’s core internet business. Yahoo had kept an April 18 deadline for initial bids for its media, email and other web businesses, bowing to pressure from activist shareholder Starboard Value LP and others.

Since it was first placed on the block, Yahoo has seen interest from Verizon, AT&T, Alibaba, Time Inc. and a number of private equity firms, including TPG Capital, KKR and the pairing of Bain Capital with Vista Equity Partners.

However, companies such as Time, Comcast, AT&T and Google’s parent company Alphabet opted not to place bids ahead of the Monday deadline. According to the Wall Street Journal, media giant Time dropped its bid for Yahoo after concluding that the degree of difficulty in righting Yahoo’s fortunes was too great.

Britain’s Daily Mail is in talks to join a private equity firm, which did submit a bid for Yahoo, the Journal reported Wednesday. Yahoo’s search engine, email, news and sports services are expected to complement Daily Mail’s online presence and bring in ad revenue from its globally popular websites.

Shares of Yahoo rose as much as 5 percent Wednesday following a better-than-expected quarterly result released late Tuesday.

While investors cheered the results, analysts were little moved and said the management had failed to dispel the uncertainty around the bidding process, according to Reuters

"... We were hoping that (CEO Marissa Mayer) would provide more color on what was for sale ... and timing around the process," Neil Doshi, an analyst at Mizuho Securities USA said, Reuters reported.