As expected Verizon Communications, Inc. is set to make a bid to acquire Yahoo, Inc. next week, but in an unexpected turn of events they may be joined by Google, Inc., according to a report Thursday.

Bloomberg claims that Verizon will also offer to acquire Yahoo Japan (currently majority owned by SoftBank Group Corp.) to sweeten the deal, but then adds “Google, the main division of Alphabet Inc., is also considering bidding for Yahoo’s core business.”

Quoting various other sources, the report states that AT&T, Inc. and Comcast Corp. have decided against bidding, and Microsoft Corp. also won’t be among the bidders, despite having previously attempted to buy the company in 2008; of note though Microsoft may still be involved in the bidding process via a third party as a report late March noted that they were offering $1 billion in financial support to private equity funds interested in bidding.

Among other names mentioned are Time, Inc., who is said to still be evaluating a bid, with private equity funds Bain and TPG also likely to make an offer.

Valuation

The report goes on to state that Verizon prices Yahoo’s core assets at $8 billion, with Yahoo Japan being valued at $8.5 billion, making a potential bid for both coming in at the $16.5 billion mark.

Those numbers come despite figures provided by Yahoo to suitors that showed that the company’s revenue was in literal free-fall, and quite possibly a near terminal decline no thanks to the abysmal failure of Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer; those figures showed projected revenue will drop 15 percent and earnings by more than 20 percent for 2016 over 2015, and the numbers get worse compared to 2014.

The report also notes that Verizon, should it acquire Yahoo, would immediately oust Mayer as head of the company and replace her with AOL, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong, with Verizon Executive Vice President Marni Walden assisting the management of the combined entity

First-round bids for Yahoo main web business (that is excluding its stake in Alibaba) must be submitted by April 11.

 Image credit: eirikso/Flickr/CC by 2.0