Yahoo extends deadline for opening bids: report

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Yahoo has given prospective buyers an added week to make preliminary bids for the company’s core assets, tech news website Re/Code reported on Friday.

The struggling Internet pioneer has been briefing prospective buyers, according to US media reports that indicated the list of suitors included telecommunications titan Verizon, Google-parent Alphabet, and Time Inc.

The deadline for initial offers was reportedly extended from Monday to April 18, a day before California-based Yahoo releases earnings figures for the first three months of this year.

Re/Code attributed the information to unnamed sources close to the situation and “blabby bankers they talk to.”

Yahoo declined to comment on the report.

In letters to potential suitors, the troubled Internet company asked them what assets they were interested in, how they would finance such acquisitions and what terms would have to be met on their end, the Wall Street Journal reported last month, quoting people familiar with the matter.

The paper said some buyers might be interested in Yahoo’s core web business or parts of it, while others might bid for stakes in Alibaba or Yahoo Japan.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who took over in 2012 with the mission of boosting growth, is in an increasingly difficult position.

Although Yahoo is one of the best-known names on the Internet and is used by around one billion people, it has fallen behind Google in Internet searches and has been steadily losing ground in online advertising.

Ironically, Mayer joined Yahoo as chief executive from Google a result of a proxy war launched by an activist investor group.

While Mayer has injected some energy and glamor into the company, Yahoo’s finances have failed to improve and its core operations are valued in the market as worthless, with the company’s valuation propped up by its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.

In February, Yahoo said it was cutting 15 percent of its workforce and narrowing its focus as it explores “strategic alternatives.”

The California company reported a loss of $4.43 billion in the final three months of last year, due mostly to lowering the value of its US, Canada, Europe, Latin America and Tumblr units.

source: interaksyon.com

Verizon Activated 6.2 Million iPhones in Q4, Almost Half Were iPhone 5

We just got our first glimpse at iPhone 5 sales for the fourth quarter.

Verizon revealed during its earnings call Tuesday that it activated 6.2 million iPhones in the fourth quarter, almost half of which were LTE-enabled iPhone 5 devices. That means Verizon sold about 3 million iPhone 5s in the December quarter, up from 651,000 in the previous quarter (when the device had only been on sale for nine days).

In total, the carrier activated 9.8 million smartphones in the fourth quarter, a new record for quarterly smartphone activations. In a pre-earnings estimate earlier this month, Verizon credited the higher number of activations to a "higher mix of Apple smartphones."

Despite the record number of activations, Verizon reported a whopping $1.93 billion loss for the fourth quarter due to charges incurred from pensions and Hurricane Sandy.

AT&T and Sprint haven't reported their iPhone sales figures yet, though AT&T did reveal that it too had a record quarter for smartphone sales — with 10 million smartphone activations — which many assume is due to demand for the new iPhone. Apple's earnings report for the December quarter will be released on Wednesday.

Apple's stock was up by about half a percent pre-market following the positive iPhone sales figures.

source: mashable.com