Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴集團) has talked with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte about providing financing to buy the 40 percent stake in itself held by Yahoo Inc, according to people familiar with the matter.
Temasek, the state-owned investment company, might help fund an offer in return for a bigger share of privately owned Alibaba Group, said the people, who declined to be identified.
Temasek is not interested in owning Yahoo, one person said.
Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba may be worth about US$13 billion, using a valuation by the Singapore investor last month.
Temasek’s backing would aid Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma’s (馬雲) bid to gain more control of the company he founded and increase its investments in China.
The possible bid to buy Yahoo out of Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce company, came after the US shareholder fired CEO Carol Bartz and started a review of its strategy. Bartz last year turned down efforts by Alibaba to buy shares held by Yahoo, straining relations with Ma.
The Alibaba-Temasek arrangement would likely be part of a possible takeover bid for Yahoo with private-equity firm Silver Lake and Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies (DST), another person said.
Alibaba, Silver Lake and DST have discussed forming a group to make an offer, people with knowledge of the situation said last week. Silver Lake has let Yahoo know of its efforts and is trying to line up financing to pursue the deal, the people said.
No clear deal structure or consortium has yet emerged and a bid for Yahoo might not materialize, the people said.
Yahoo’s advisers at Goldman Sachs Group Inc are sending out select financial data to certain parties, one person said.
Other private-equity funds are considering an investment in Yahoo and more than one of group of investors might bid or split the assets of the Sunnyvale, California-based Internet company, said the people.
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