Reuters reports exclusively that Yahoo is in talks to exit Japan
03.01.2011
Reuters broke the news on March 1 that Yahoo Inc is in advanced talks to leave its joint venture in Japan with SoftBank Corp and that a deal could be reached within a few weeks. The news caused Yahoo Japan shares to jump as much as 8 percent and SoftBank shares to fall 4 percent in Tokyo trading. Reuters exclusively reported that a straightforward sale of Yahoo’s 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan to SoftBank was unlikely for tax reasons, and that the two companies were exploring other deal structures. The story explained that if and when a deal is reached, Yahoo is likely to turn its attention to the China market, where it and Softbank own stakes in Alibaba Group. Shares of Yahoo rose 3.2 percent the next day. Bloomberg, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and CNN Money all cited Reuters in their stories. Evercore Partners also raised its rating on Yahoo to overweight based on the Reuters report.
