Yahoo to spin off Alibaba stake in separate company

News Broadband Global 28 JAN 2015
Yahoo to spin off Alibaba stake in separate company
Yahoo announced plans to spin off its stake in Alibaba to shareholders. It will create a separately listed public company for its 35.5 percent stake in the Chinese e-commerce group and distribute shares in the company pro rata to Yahoo shareholders. The Alibaba shares were worth around USD 40 billion based on the company's share price the day before the announcement. The tax- and debt-free proposal is expected to reduce pressure on Yahoo to monetise its stake in Alibaba. The spin-off is expected to occur in Q4, after the expiry of the one-year lock-up after Alibaba 's IPO.

 

The company made the announcement alongisde fourth-quarter results showing revenues of USD 1.25 billion, down slightly from USD 1.26 billion a year earlier. CEO Marissa Mayer said the growing share of mobile sales was helping to stabilise results. Mobile revenues increased 23 percent from the previous quarter to USD 254 million.

Search revenues were up 1 percent year-on-year to USD 467 million and flat excluding traffic acquisition costs. The number of paid clicks was up 10 percent from Q4 2013, and the price per click increased 7 percent. In display advertising, revenue fell 4 percent to USD 532 million and was also down 4 percent excluding TAC.

Operating profit declined to USD 32 million from USD 174 million, and adjusted EBITDA fell to USD 409 million from USD 478 million. Net earnings in the quarter declined to USD 166 million or USD 0.17 per share, from USD 348 million of USD 0.33 per share a year ago.

Yahoo finished the quarter with cash of USD 10 billion, up from USD 5 billion the prior year. During the year, Yahoo repurchased around 62 million of its own shares, for a total USD 2.4 billion.

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