San Francisco - Shares in troubled web portal Yahoo rose as
much as 16 per cent Tuesday after a report that former AOL chief
executive Jonathan Miller was trying to raise funds to buy out all or
part of the company.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Miller was talking to
private equity firms and sovereign wealth fund managers to raise as
much as 30 billion dollars to purchase the company at between 20
dollars and 22 dollars a share.
The report followed a strongly-denied story in the Sunday Times of
London that Miller was collaborating with Microsoft to fund a 20-
billion-dollar purchase of the company's search business.
The reports came weeks after Yahoo founder Jerry Yang said he
would step down as CEO once a replacement had been found. Yang has
been widely criticized for his handling of negotiations with
Microsoft, which in May offered to buy the company for as much as
47.5 billion dollars, but withdrew after Yang demanded more.
Since then Yahoo's shares have dived from more than 30 dollars a
share to just 10 dollars a share. On Tuesday they traded as high as
12.50 a share, a 16 per cent rise on its opening price.
The newspaper reported that while there had been informal contact
between Yahoo and Miller, Yahoo sources were skeptical about Miller's
success in raising enough funds, given the credit crunch and severe
losses among private equity and sovereign wealth funds.
USA
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