AOL hires financial advisers, aims Yahoo

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 08 November 2010, 22:09 IST
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Bangalore: AOL has hired financial advisers to explore various strategic options for the company, one of which includes a possible tie-up with bigger rival Yahoo. In recent days, AOL's advisers have been presenting different scenarios to AOL officials that illustrate how the two companies could combine their operations and whether the complexity of any such transaction could be surmounted, the people said. AOL, which has held previous merger talks with Yahoo, has stopped short of reaching out to its potential partner with a formal proposal, these people said.AOL has not reached out to Yahoo with a proposal, the Journal said, adding that AOL's advisers have been showing company officials different ideas about a potential deal. These options include merging Yahoo's and AOL's online businesses and spinning off Yahoo's Asian assets to give shareholders back some capital, the paper reported. Another idea would have private equity buy a stake in the combined operations and give a dividend to Yahoo shareholders, the paper said. AOL is also looking at alternatives other than a deal with Yahoo, the paper reported on its website. Last month, a source told Reuters that several private equity firms had approached Internet and media companies including News Corp and AOL to gauge their interest in buying out Yahoo.

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