Yahoo Inc. may consider selling itself, in the wake of firing its CEO Carol Bartz, if the right suitor came along, reports suggested Wednesday.
Bartz was fired on Tuesday for failing to turn around the fortunes of the former high-flying online search giant after 2.5 years at the helm.
Carol Bartz's three-year tenure at media and search-engine company Yahoo! has ended. (Mark Lennihan/Associated Press)The stock gained more than 6 per cent to more than $13 in after-hours trading on Tuesday, after news of Bartz's firing spread.
But that's still well off the $43 level it sat at in late 2005.
The move came after the board of directors examined the company's assets and concluded Bartz hadn't done enough to maximize their value. Citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal said the company is open to selling itself to the right bidder.
A sale could consist of merging with another company outright, or splitting up the company and selling assets in several chunks.
At least one analyst thinks a sale is the most likely result.
"Given the succession of three CEOs in less than four years, it’ll be challenging for the board to find an A player who’d be willing to take on the daunting task, and for investors to wait for yet again another turnaround to happen," Jefferies & Co. analyst Youssef Squali said in a note, according to financial publication Barron's.
“We believe that Yahoo! sells itself before a permanent CEO is announced," he was quoted as saying.
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