Verizon Communications Inc. is ready to make a bid for Yahoo Inc.’s Web business next week, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
Google is likewise weighing the possibility of seeking to acquire Yahoo’s core business, according to another source cited by Bloomberg.
The news agency reported that Verizon would be ready to acquire Yahoo Japan with the aim of making its offer more attractive.
Bloomberg said that Microsoft, which made an unsuccessful hostile offer for Yahoo in 2008, this time will not join the list of potential buyers, which will not include AT&T or Comcast either.
According to the information to which Bloomberg gained access, Verizon would value Yahoo’s core Web business at at least $8 billion.
Yahoo late last month gave interested parties two weeks to present preliminary offers for its Asian Web operations and assets.
Some buyers could be interested only in Yahoo’s strategic Web operations, or in certain parts of them, while others could also present offers for parts of Alibaba or for Yahoo Japan.
The group set April 11 as the deadline date for proposals, according to what DowJones reported in late March.
Sources with inside knowledge of the situation told DowJones that Yahoo was sure that the number of interested firms would go down from the 40 who in recent weeks signed confidentiality agreements to a much smaller group of players really interested in buying troubled Web assets.
Yahoo announced in early February losses of $4.359 billion in 2015 and unveiled a plan to cut spending that included a 15 percent payroll reduction, as well as closing its offices in Madrid, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Dubai and Milan.
