Jerry Yang in talks with equity investors about taking Yahoo private
Yahoo co-founder and former chief executive Jerry Yang is talking to private equity firms about taking the internet company private. Talks have so far been informal, but Yahoo's advisors are expected to send financial information this week to interested parties.
Warwick Ashford 
Warwick Ashford is chief reporter at Computer Weekly. He joined the CW team in June 2007 and is focused on IT security, business continuity, IT law and issues relating to regulation, compliance and governance. Before joining CW, he spent four years working in various roles including technology editor for ITWeb, an IT news publisher based in Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition to news and feature writing for ITWeb’s print publications, he was involved in liaising with sponsors of specialist news areas on the ITWeb site and developing new sponsorship opportunities. He came to IT journalism after three years as a course developer and technical writer for an IT training organisation and eight years working in radio news as a writer and presenter at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
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Former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is said to be planning to take the firm private.
Yahoo co-founder and former chief executive Jerry Yang is talking to private equity firms about a deal to take the internet company private, according to US reports.
Such a deal would involve Yang and other Yahoo co-founder David Filo rolling over their stakes in the company of 3.63% and 5.9% respectively, according to sources cited by Reuters.
After removing Carol Bartz as CEO in September, Yahoo's board announced a strategic review. This could include selling the internet firm to one of several interested buyers.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Microsoft Silver Lake Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Hellman & Friedman and Bain Capital have all expressed interest in Yahoo in recent weeks.
Talks have so far been informal, according to Reuters' various sources, but Yahoo's advisors are expected to send financial information this week to interested parties.
Analysts say Yang might want to take Yahoo private for several reasons, starting with the fact that Yahoo is punished by Wall Street for not being a growth company.
Yahoo's low stock price also prevents shares from being used as currency for acquisitions.
In one scenario, a buyer could sell off Yahoo's international assets to reimburse the capital outlay and focus on the company's remaining US operations.
Observers say Yang may hope his knowledge of Yahoo will be enough to convince a buyer to allow him to stay on and try to restore the company to its former glory without pressure from public investors.
Investors strongly criticised Yang three years ago when, as CEO, he rejected a Microsoft offer for the company of $33 a share. Since then Yahoo's share price has fallen dramatically, closing at $15.47 on Friday.
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