Silver Lake offers $16.60 per share for Yahoo stake, report says
The investment firm is reportedly offering a slight premium on Yahoo's stock price but may have been outbid by a competing offer.
Investment firm Silver Lake has offered Yahoo $16.60 per share to buy a minority stake in the online giant, Bloomberg is reporting, citing sources.
Silver Lake seems unwilling to bet too much on Yahoo, though. Yahoo's stock closed yesterday at $15.70. If Yahoo accepts the deal, it would be agreeing to a paltry 6 percent premium on its stock price and a valuation of about $20.6 billion.
That said, Bloomberg's sources also said that Silver Lake has been outbid by another offer from investment firm TPG Capital. The sources didn't say how much TPG Capital offered Yahoo.
Yahoo is quite the acquisition target in Silicon Valley right now, with a host of companies a-courting including Microsoft, China's Alibaba Group, and Bain Capital, in addition to Silver Lake and TPG Capital. Even Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is reportedly considering a takeover.
The interest ratcheted up in September when the company ousted CEO Carol Bartz over Yahoo's sluggish stock and poor financial performance. Since then, Yahoo's board has said it's looking for a new CEO, but behind closed doors, it appears focused on accepting offers from the highest bidder.
But not everyone wants to play nice. Reuters reported yesterday that another investment firm, Thomas H. Lee Partners, is eying a leveraged buyout of Yahoo's U.S. operations. If successful, the move could cost the equity firm between $5 billion and $6 billion, but give it a controlling interest in the online giant without being forced to go head-to-head with firms offering cash deals.
For its part, Yahoo has consistently declined requests for comment on all the rumors surrounding its buyout, but Bloomberg's sources said that the company's board will be meeting today to discuss the offers it has received so far.
Yahoo shares are trading up 1.4 percent today to $15.92.