New bids for Yahoo’s core business, patents and real estate assets have come in, Bloomberg reported, saying both Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, and AT&T each put in bids of about USD 5 billion.
Sources also said that Verizon Communications made an offer of USD 3.5-4 billion for only Yahoo’s core business. Verizon didn’t bid on the intellectual property and real estate because Yahoo told the company it wished to sell them separately. Verizon is willing to buy both the patents and real estate.
Yahoo’s board will meet soon to discuss the proposals, the person said. Private equity company TPG is still involved in the bidding and has had preliminary discussions with several strategic partners in case it needs to increase its offer, one of the people said. Yahoo, which began a strategic review of the company in February, accepted first-round proposals in April. Spokesmen for Yahoo, Verizon and TPG declined to comment. Representatives for Gilbert and AT&T did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
