Jerry Yang reduces Yahoo holdings
Yahoo founder Jerry Yang reduces his stake in the search engine company, which has seen its shares rise over the past year.
Yahoo, which offered a 3-for-2 stock split last year, has since seen its stock price climb nearly threefold. The company's shares have risen from slightly more than 23 a share last February to close at 63-3/4 Friday, down 3/8 from the previous day.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing today, Yang reduced his stake to 12.8 percent, or 5.7 million shares. A year ago he held a stake of 14.9 percent, or 5.85 million shares, on a split-adjusted basis, meaning that his disposition amounts to a 2.5 percent reduction in his holdings. Yang said the disposed shares were used to seed a private foundation, serve as a donation to the Asia Pacific community, and make family gifts.
Yahoo cofounder David Filo, however, maintained his stake at 13 percent, or 5.8 million shares, on a split-adjusted basis.
Yahoo has been on a roll of late, making acquisitions while posting strong revenue growth and operating profits. Excluding an acquisition charge for Four11, the company posted fourth-quarter profits of $2.6 million, compared with profits of $96,000 last year. Its revenues rose to $25.1 million during the quarter, up from $8.6 million a year ago.
Yahoo has been expanding beyond its search-engine roots to become a builder of online communities. Its acquisition of Four11 allowed it to add free email to its service offerings.