Yahoo shares dip as Einhorn sells off stake
David Einhorn's hedge fund, Greenlight Capital, drops the investment it made in Yahoo, saying the profit it had hoped to see from the Internet giant's stake in China's Alibaba Group didn't pan out.
It all started off so well.
But it didn't go on for long in the case of David Einhorn's high-profile hedge fund, Greenlight Capital, which today dumped an investment it made earlier this year in Yahoo on high hopes of the value of the Internet giant's stake in China's Alibaba Group.
That was before the ugly public fight Yahoo got into with Alibaba over its Alipay payment unit and especially with its voluble CEO, Jack Ma.
In a letter to investors, Einhorn (pictured right) said the kerfuffle, which has hit Yahoo's stock hard, "wasn't what we signed up for."
Yahoo shares are down just below 2 percent today and are now at $15.52 each.
Einhorn said in the letter that his fund had "a modest loss" in Yahoo, which sources said was about $20 million.
Einhorn had bought less than 0.65 percent of Yahoo, or about 8.5 million shares in March, which he said was due to his feeling that the company was undervalued with regard to its Asian assets.
Said Einhorn at the time: "We would not be surprised if Yahoo's 40 percent stake in Alibaba Group alone was ultimately worth Yahoo's entire current market value."
Fast forward to today:
"The partnership bought Yahoo earlier this year based on a sum-of-the-parts analysis, which included putting substantial value on its Chinese assets. Shortly after the purchase, the value of the Chinese assets came into doubt as the CEO of the Chinese unit hived-off a valuable subsidiary into a corporation that he personally controls. From there, the finger-pointing started in every direction. This wasn't what we signed up for. We exited with a modest loss."
Here's the full Einhorn letter, which appeared on zerohedge.com: