Yahoo

With the joinings of Yahoo, and Amazon, into the TV content offerings, the threat of OTT services on cable TV providers are getting more real...

Yahoo! to add two online comedy series to its TV offerings

NEW YORK — Yahoo! chief executive Marissa Mayer is about to dive into the shark tank of television-style original video.

Ms Mayer announced this week that Yahoo! is commissioning two original TV-length comedy series that will air exclusively on its websites and mobile apps. It is also unveiling a partnership with Live Nation, a large concert promoter, to stream one concert live on Yahoo! every day for a year.

The moves plunge the company directly into the increasingly competitive world of high-quality digital video. Technology companies such as Amazon.com, Netflix, Google, Hulu and even Microsoft are challenging traditional producers of television content, such as HBO, AMC and the broadcast and cable networks, for fickle viewers.

“Users expect online content to be as good as, if not better than, TV,” Ms Mayer said at the company’s annual presentation of new digital offerings to advertisers at New York’s Lincoln Center on Monday evening. She and her lieutenants are betting that a big push into original content, both with video and digital magazines, will draw legions of new viewers and advertisers to the long-plodding company.

In committing to eight episodes each for the two comedy series, Yahoo! is pledging to spend millions of dollars in a business where experienced programmers often waste tens of millions before they find a single hit — which very often become hits or flops for reasons no one can anticipate or explain.

Yahoo!, which has about 800 million monthly users, has been sprucing up its video channel, Yahoo! Screen, by adding a new mobile app and more content from Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central and Vevo, a music video site.

But it is not clear that visitors think of Yahoo!, with its plethora of news, sports, weather and other information, as a place to kick back and watch a show, especially when it does not have a large library of popular content.

“It’s a me-too gesture,” said eMarketer principal analyst David Hallerman. “In order to get audience for original programming, people have to know about it, they have to want to see it and it has to be easy to watch.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES

http://www.todayonline.com/tech/yahoo-ad...-offerings

Valuation on tech stock is tricky, even among "experts". From US$95 billion to US$195 billion, what a difference...

Yahoo takes hit after Alibaba IPO filing

[NEW YORK] Yahoo shares tumbled on Wednesday on concerns its stake in Alibaba may be worth less than anticipated following the Chinese online giant's stock market offering.

The US Internet giant saw a 6.6 per cent drop in its shares to US$34.07 at the close of trade as the market digested details in Alibaba's initial public offering documents filed on Tuesday.

Colin Gillis at BGC Partners said the IPO showed Yahoo's stake at 22.6 per cent, not the 24 per cent which had been previously estimated.

Mr Gillis told AFP that the valuation suggested in the Alibaba filing was US$116 billion and added, "that's less than investors were thinking." "Of course that's a private company mark, and not necessarily reflecting what the public will bring, but that's also something that has weighed a little bit" on Yahoo, said Mr Gillis.

Mr Gillis said the sheer size of Alibaba was taking a toll on the rest of the tech sector.

"Alibaba's IPO is going to suck a lot of oxygen out of the stock market for stocks like Amazon, Google, eBay and even Facebook and things like that as investors swap out of one stock to another," he said.

Some investors were expecting Alibaba's market value to be around US$150 billion or more.

One of the more optimistic values came from the private company research firm PrivCo, estimating the "fair valuation" at US$195 billion for the Chinese firm. But another research firm, Trefis, pegged Alibaba's worth at US$95 billion on Wednesday.
...
Source: Business Times Breaking News

Alibaba is releasing more information on their IPO filing this coming week. Yahoo shares have been slowly creeping up in anticipation of an August IPO for Alibaba. Talk that it will be 8 August (8/8), lucky Chinese numbers.
The continual hype surrounding the IPO should keep Yahoo's price up.
I am vested in Yahoo now as a proxy to Alibaba.
I plan to ride the hype all the way to the day after Alibaba's IPO, after that I plan to sell Yahoo and let Alibaba settle down.

so the question is, why is it trading so cheaply?

(03-07-2014, 04:10 PM)rickytj Wrote: so the question is, why is it trading so cheaply?

Because the core Yahoo business isnt growing (actually in a slow decline).
However, for Yahoo shareholders, the hope is that with the cash from the sale of less than half of their share of 23% of Alibaba (estimated to be around USD8B-USD10B), they will either return the cash to shareholders as dividends or announce a major acquisition that will be a catalyst for future growth (like a YELP) or embark on a mother of share buy back scheme or a combo of all 3.

Whichever way you look at it, Yahoo is in for a big pay day!

I am long and vested.

Yahoo’s Alibaba Windfall Means Firepower to Chase Google
By Brian Womack May 8, 2014 4:06 AM GMT+0800

May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo is selling 208 million shares, or about 40 percent of its Alibaba stake, in the Chinese Internet company’s upcoming initial public offering, and could generate in excess of $10 billion in the process. That would more than double Yahoo’s cash stockpile. Cristina Alesci reports on Bloomberg Television’s “In The Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Related
Alibaba May Not Meet Our Quality Criteria: Young
Marissa Mayer is finally set to get a cash infusion from Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)’s nine-year investment in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. -- along with the pressure of putting the money to work.

Yahoo is selling 208 million shares, or about 40 percent of its Alibaba stake, in the Chinese Internet company’s upcoming initial public offering, and could generate in excess of $10 billion in the process. That would more than double Yahoo’s cash stockpile.

Mayer, almost two years into a turnaround effort that’s failed to produce much sales or profit growth, must decide how to deploy the capital. She could return cash to shareholders through a buyback or dividend, or focus on expansion through acquisitions. Choosing wisely is critical, as the payout offers Mayer her best shot yet at narrowing the ever-widening gap between Yahoo and Web rivals Google Inc. (GOOG) and Facebook Inc.

“It gives her firepower to go buy companies,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, who has the equivalent of a hold rating on Yahoo. “What she does with the cash will define how effective of a manager she is.”

Yahoo could look at purchasing public companies including AOL Inc., which may help deliver sales growth, Gillis said. Mayer may also add to her string of startup acquisitions with Web companies that can generate more visitor traffic, he said.

Alibaba Numbers

Alibaba filed yesterday for what could be the largest U.S. IPO on record, with the Hangzhou-based company set to raise as much as $20 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts have estimated the company’s valuation could reach at least $150 billion at the time of the offering.

Yahoo owns 523.6 million shares, or a 23 percent stake, in Alibaba, the remaining holdings from a $1 billion investment in 2005. Shareholders of the Sunnyvale, California-based company reaped the rewards of that deal in recent years even as Yahoo’s digital-advertising market share plummeted because of the surging popularity of Alibaba’s services like the Taobao Marketplace and Tmall.com, which connect retail brands with consumers.

Alibaba’s sales jumped 57 percent in the nine months ended Dec. 31 to $6.51 billion from the same period a year earlier, the company said yesterday in its prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Net income increased by more than 300 percent to $2.85 billion. Yahoo shares have climbed 141 percent in the past two years, almost quadruple the gains in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Benefits Remain

Mayer and investors will still benefit from Alibaba’s growth, because Yahoo is keeping 60 percent of its shares. Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, said Alibaba is the most valuable piece of Yahoo, accounting for more than half the price of the stock, which he gives a $40 target. Less than $7 of it is tied to Yahoo’s main business, he said in an April 16 note to investors.

Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba is valued at $26.2 billion, based on a fair value that Alibaba assigned to its shares last month, according to the prospectus. Yahoo’s market capitalization as of yesterday was $36.7 billion.

Yahoo’s net revenue is expected to increase less than 2 percent this year to $4.5 billion, a sixth consecutive year of little or no growth. Meanwhile, the overall digital-ad market should jump 15 percent in 2014, according to EMarketer Inc., with Yahoo’s share falling to 2.5 percent from 2.9 percent.

Driving Growth

Mayer has said she’s focused on several areas to drive growth, including mobile, video and social. She also sees opportunities in native advertising, which places promotions within content like news stories, rather than placing display ads near the top of the page or alongside the content. Mayer’s biggest acquisition to date was last year’s $1.1 billion deal for blogging site Tumblr Inc., which can help with native advertising.

Yahoo showed signs of progress in the first quarter as net sales topped some analysts’ estimates and revenue expanded for the first time in more than a year. The stock jumped 6.3 percent on April 16, the day after the results, on optimism that Mayer’s efforts to lure advertisers are paying off.

“You’re seeing some green shoots of the turnaround, but they’re still very much in the middle of it,” said Peck, who has a buy rating on the stock.

The shares of Yahoo fell 6.6 percent today to $34.07 at the close in New York.

Losing Alibaba

With the Alibaba IPO, Yahoo will lose some help with earnings. A smaller stake in Alibaba means less of the company’s profit will flow to Yahoo. In the first quarter, earnings in equity investments, including Alibaba’s and another stake in Yahoo! Japan, contributed $301 million.

When Alibaba goes public, Yahoo’s development chief Jacqueline Reses, who had been an Alibaba director since December 2012, will resign from the Chinese company’s board.

As for using the cash from the IPO, Mayer has to balance the quest for growth with shareholder demands for payouts. Yahoo returned $3.3 billion to stakeholders in 2013 in the form of buybacks. Unlike technology companies including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc., it doesn’t pay a dividend.

While returning cash may appease some investors, it does nothing to address the challenges posed by Facebook and Google, which are spending billions of dollars on acquisitions and growing much faster than Yahoo.

Cash Stewards

Mayer will now be able to notch new deals with the windfall, including seeking out high-profile startups that would bring healthy user traffic. Among the candidates that Yahoo might look at could be online scrapbooking service Pinterest Inc. and mobile-messaging app Snapchat Inc., Peck said.

Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for Pinterest, declined to comment, as did Mary Ritti, a spokeswoman for Snapchat.

Mayer, speaking at an event in New York hosted by TechCrunch today, said Yahoo would be careful with its cash.

“We intend to be good stewards of the capital; we have been good stewards of the capital to date,” Mayer said, echoing comments she made last month on a call with analysts. “We know this is of critical importance to our investors -- how any proceeds are handled.”

As she approaches her two-year anniversary at Yahoo, shareholders will want to see proof of that.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pui-Wing Tam at ptam13@bloomberg.net Ari Levy, Reed Stevenson

Yahoo will own approximately 17.5% of Alibaba after selling the 140m Alibaba shares in the IPO.

At valuation of $130B, it is higher than my initial valuation of Alibaba at $120B.

Yahoo! to return Alibaba IPO cash to investors

Yahoo! will pay investors at least half the proceeds from its Alibaba share sale when the Chinese internet retailer goes public, and retain a larger stake than expected, helping to offset the US company's disappointing results.

The US firm owns about 24pc of Alibaba, which is expected to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange later this year in what could be the largest ever US technology initial public offering. Alibaba valued itself at $130bn in a recent regulatory filing, up from an earlier $116bn.

Yahoo! said on Tuesday that Alibaba has agreed to its request to reduce the maximum number of shares it sells in the Alibaba IPO from 208m to 140m.

"The idea is that Yahoo! shareholders can participate and benefit from the upside to Alibaba post the IPO, as opposed to just having to sell more stock in the IPO," said Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter.

Yahoo! finance chief Ken Goldman said the company was committed "to return at least half of the after-tax IPO proceeds to shareholders".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsb...stors.html

Alibaba IPO

(vested)
======

SHANGHAI: The highly-anticipated US stock offer by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will take place after September 1, the official Xinhua news agency on Friday quoted an anonymous source as saying.

The source said the roadshow for the initial public offering (IPO), which could rival Facebook's flotation, was originally scheduled for late July but would be postponed until after the US Labour Day holiday, Xinhua reported from the eastern city of Hangzhou, where Alibaba is headquartered.

"If not delayed, the roadshow -- to last about two weeks -- may coincide with Wall Street's traditional vacation time," the source was quoted as saying. "Alibaba does not want to make the IPO process too hasty."

There had been market speculation Alibaba was aiming for its New York Stock Exchange listing on August 8, since the Chinese for that date is pronounced "ba ba", which is both a lucky number and the sound of its name, albeit different characters.

Analysts say the IPO could raise around $15 billion or even more, putting it on par with Facebook's $16 billion IPO in 2012, and value the firm from $100 billion to $200 billion or higher.

Alibaba is often described as China's version of Amazon or eBay, since it has elements of both those firms.

It operates China's most popular internet retail platform, Taobao, which is estimated to hold more than 90 percent of the online market for consumer-to-consumer transactions.

Founder Jack Ma set up Alibaba in 1999, convincing friends to fund him with $60,000, by starting with a platform for Chinese manufacturers to connect with foreign buyers and later launching flagship site Taobao in 2003.

- AFP/xq

The CEO needs more than just Alibaba, to survive in Yahoo...

Yahoo! in a flurry to grow mobile ad sales

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo! is adding to its mobile line-up with the acquisition of analytics company Flurry, in a bid to beef up a fast-growing mobile advertising business that still lags those of Google and Facebook in scale.

It is paying more than US$300 million (S$370 million) for the San Francisco-based start-up, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Flurry analyses data from smartphone users so developers can better understand their audiences and helps brands target ads on devices, giving Yahoo! more pathways for mobile promotions.

The company’s analytics are used by 170,000 developers globally and the deal will give Yahoo! important strategic insights into how various apps are used on the 1.4 billion mobile devices on which Flurry runs. Facebook gained similar insights when it bought Onavo, another leading analytics company, last year.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/tech/yahoo-fl...e-ad-sales

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsb...-move.html

Alibaba could add billions to its valuation with one simple move
Chinese ecommerce giant could increase price range of IPO shares as it prepares to close order book due to high investor demand

Alibaba is expected to close the order books on its record-breaking initial public offering early after high demand from investors.
The Chinese ecommerce giant, which is planning to float in the US this month, is confident it will sell all the shares offered to the market at the upper end of the $60 to $66-a-share price range, sources told The Telegraph.
The level of interest suggests that Alibaba’s banks could increase the this range, netting the 15-year-old company substantially more than the $24.3bn (£15bn) it is looking for. Even at this level it would be the largest tech IPO in history, valuing Alibaba at up to $167bn.
Alibaba’s banks, including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, will stop taking orders from investors in Asia on Wednesday, a day earlier than expected.
A final price for the shares is still expected to be set on Thursday.

At market cap of $167b, it is much much higher than my initial valuation of $120b.

As of 5 Feb 2014
Market cap of Yahoo! - $42.65B
Market cap of Yahoo! Japan - $22.0B using USD/JPY 107.3. Since Yahoo has a 35% equity interest, its stake is worth ~$5B after tax

Alibaba IPO valuation - $162.7B

Divestment of 121.7m shares in Alibaba in the IPO at $66 (after 35% tax) - $5.2B
401.8m shares of Alibaba post-IPO at $66 - $26.5B

Assuming
1) Yahoo dispose Alibaba in the future at 15% tax rate
2) Alibaba's share price increases by 20%
I value Yahoo stake in Alibaba post-IPO at $27B

Yahoo cash & marketable securities - $4.3B
Yahoo FCF for 2qFY14 - $186m
est FY14 FCF - $744m

If Yahoo is valued at 7x FCF - $5B

My valuation of Yahoo now is $46.5B.

(vested)

Fantastic analysis!

However, I think you are conservative in your numbers. $baba will certainly go higher than 20% pop from IPO price. Why? The demand from not just the US investors but also Asian investors (especially those from the mainland).

This will be a good week for $yhoo but what happens post IPO of $baba?
Will those investors that are using $yhoo as a vehicle to get pre $baba IPO action sell out and jump into $baba shares proper? I suspect so.

Also lots of questions on what will $yhoo do with the $5.2B windfall?
Marissa Mayer & Ken Goldman has already said half will be returned to shareholders (in what form we dont know yet (dividend? or share buy back?)).
If they make an astute acquisition, then $yhoo's shares could further pop!

Sit back, brew a big pot of coffee and enjoy the fireworks this Friday night!

Huat ahhh!!!!!

(vested)

(13-09-2014, 10:35 PM)yawnyawn Wrote: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsb...-move.html

Alibaba could add billions to its valuation with one simple move
Chinese ecommerce giant could increase price range of IPO shares as it prepares to close order book due to high investor demand

Alibaba is expected to close the order books on its record-breaking initial public offering early after high demand from investors.
The Chinese ecommerce giant, which is planning to float in the US this month, is confident it will sell all the shares offered to the market at the upper end of the $60 to $66-a-share price range, sources told The Telegraph.
The level of interest suggests that Alibaba’s banks could increase the this range, netting the 15-year-old company substantially more than the $24.3bn (£15bn) it is looking for. Even at this level it would be the largest tech IPO in history, valuing Alibaba at up to $167bn.
Alibaba’s banks, including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, will stop taking orders from investors in Asia on Wednesday, a day earlier than expected.
A final price for the shares is still expected to be set on Thursday.

At market cap of $167b, it is much much higher than my initial valuation of $120b.

As of 5 Feb 2014
Market cap of Yahoo! - $42.65B
Market cap of Yahoo! Japan - $22.0B using USD/JPY 107.3. Since Yahoo has a 35% equity interest, its stake is worth ~$5B after tax

Alibaba IPO valuation - $162.7B

Divestment of 121.7m shares in Alibaba in the IPO at $66 (after 35% tax) - $5.2B
401.8m shares of Alibaba post-IPO at $66 - $26.5B

Assuming
1) Yahoo dispose Alibaba in the future at 15% tax rate
2) Alibaba's share price increases by 20%
I value Yahoo stake in Alibaba post-IPO at $27B

Yahoo cash & marketable securities - $4.3B
Yahoo FCF for 2qFY14 - $186m
est FY14 FCF - $744m

If Yahoo is valued at 7x FCF - $5B

My valuation of Yahoo now is $46.5B.

(vested)