UPDATED 23:05 EDT / JULY 17 2016

NEWS

Final round of bidding for Yahoo Monday, new owner may be known by end of week

The buyer of Yahoo, Inc.’s core business could be known as soon as the end of the week, with the fourth, and final bids for the company due Monday.

According to reports, the final bids are due the same day the company is reporting its second quarter earnings.

As of the last round, Verizon is believed to have submitted a $3 billion bid for the business, with AT&T, private equity firms, including TPG Internet Pty Ltd., and a group led by Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert also remaining in the bidding.

Although not previously mentioned as bidders, there is nothing stopping new players entering a bid at the last moment, with names such as SoftBank Group Corp. and even Alibaba Group Holding Ltd being mentioned as possible late bidders.

Verizon has long been the favorite to win the bidding war, particularly given the company has synergies through its fully owned AOL network which, besides Yahoo, would create an internet powerhouse.

If the bids come in at a price too low for investors, Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer could potentially recommend to the board that the sale be rejected in favor of further implementing her as yet successful turnaround plan.

Q2 report

There’s no doubt that the timing of the Q2 financials and the final day to lodge a bid are coincidental, although it’s not clear as to whether the financials will be available to potential buyers prior to them being released to the public by Yahoo itself.

Yahoo’s Q1 results beat market expectations, but that wasn’t exactly hard, given the market went into the quarter with low expectations due to the ongoing decline across all of Yahoo’s businesses.

The company delivered revenue of $1.087 billion and earnings per share of $0.08 for the first quarter, down from $1.226 billion or $0.15 cents per share for the same quarter of 2015, but ahead of analysts predictions of $1.08 billion or $0.07 per share; acquisition costs increased to $228 million from $183 million in Q1 2015, while the loss from operations blew out to $167 million from $87 million a year earlier.

Net earnings came in at a loss of $99 million, versus a profit of $22 million in the same quarter of 2015.

The market is expecting a further decrease in those numbers in the second quarter with a prediction of revenue at $1.08 billion, down 13.4 percent from Q2 2015, and adjusted earnings per share coming in at $0.10, down from $0.16 for the same period last year.

Expect the financial results Monday afternoon and an announcement of the winning bidder by close of business Friday.

Image credit: adders/Flickr/CC by 2.0

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