UPDATED 03:43 EST / DECEMBER 02 2015

NEWS

Yahoo’s chips are down as investors push to sell-off its core Internet services

Ever since she first landed the CEO job at Yahoo Inc. back in 2012, Marissa Mayer has tried all manner of tricks aimed at getting people to engage with its Internet services, like Yahoo! Mail and search. But those efforts have largely failed to Yahoo’s image of a dog that’s had its day, and now Mayer could be about to do something much more drastic and sell off its Internet services altogether.

That decision will be made at a series of boardroom level meetings at the company running from this Wednesday to Friday, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing its usual anonymous sources.

Apparently, no option is being left unconsidered. Yahoo will contemplate whether to continue its plan to spin-off its stake in China’s Alibaba Group Holding Limited, which is believed to be worth more than $30 billion but could potentially cause enormous tax headaches if it’s sold. Yahoo will also consider whether or not to sell some or all of its iconic Internet businesses. It will also consider selling both, the WSJ‘s sources said.

Mayer has struggled in the last three years to make Yahoo more relevant in the mobile era, despite refreshing major mobile properties such as Yahoo Mail, Finance, News, Sports and Weather, and hiring well-known personalities like journalist Katie Couric. Despite these efforts, Yahoo has failed to generate the same kind of excitement or, dare we say it, ‘cool factor’ of rivals firms like Google and Apple, Amazon.com, Inc., and Netflix Inc. Even worse, it’s slipped in other areas too, like messaging, where Facebook and WhatsApp have emerged as the dominant platforms.

That’s not to say Yahoo doesn’t still have any clout. It does. According to ComScore, it’s still one of the U.S.’s most-visited websites, with 210 million visitors to its Web properties in October alone, trailing just Google and Facebook.

Even so, that’s clearly not enough to satisfy Yahoo’s shareholders. Just last month, the activist investor group Starboard wrote an open letter to Mayer, asking that she refrain from selling the Alibaba stake and instead sell off the Internet businesses. That Mayer is now said to be considering the plan is indicative of the pressure she’s found herself under.

The WSJ suggests that several private equity firms would be interested in buying Yahoo’s Web properties if it does decided to sell them. Yahoo’s stock was trading up by seven percent in after-hours trading following the news.

Photo Credit: julie.anna via Compfight cc

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