Yahoo! to be sold to private buyers?

News has been released that co-founder and former CEO, Jerry Yang wants to sell Yahoo! to private buyers.

Since firing Carol Bartz in September, Yahoo! have been working on a “strategic review” with advisers Allen & Co and Goldman Sachs. (I’m assuming this means selling some of the company and their assets).

A few possible suitors have come to light, in particular, Jack Ma, the boss of Alibaba, who said his company would be “very interested in Yahoo!”. This could be partly because Yahoo! have a 35per cent stake in Alibaba, which I’m sure Ma, would like back (especially after their relationship went sour back in 2005 when Yahoo! first came on board at the Chinese e-commerce firm).

There has been talk about Ma taking on some partners too, with Private Equity firm Silver Lake and Russian internet company Digital Sky, being two of them.

Unsurprisingly, there are a number of other parties showing interest, including Mircosoft. But their efforts back in 2008 were rejected, despite they offering $33 per share.

Financial information is expected to be released this week to the interested organizations, but others have explained that these talks are still very informal and negotiations haven’t begun.

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