Yahoo Inc appears to be making progress in efforts to sell itself, despite some initial skepticism.
The latest piece of evidence: Among those vying for the company is the unusual combination of billionaire investor Warren Buffett and Dan Gilbert — the founder of Quicken Loans Inc and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
That consortium is one of several suitors that have moved into the second round of bidding for Yahoo, according to people briefed on the matter.
Photo: Bloomberg
Gilbert is leading the bid, said the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Buffett’s conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, is offering to provide financing, as he has done with the investment firm 3G Capital in its takeovers of HJ Heinz Co and Kraft Foods, and is leaving the negotiations to Gilbert, according to the people.
The unusual presence of Gilbert and Buffett in the bidding suggests just how far Yahoo and its advisers have cast their net to find potential buyers for the embattled Internet company.
The two are joined in the second round by a range of other bidders, including Verizon Communications Inc and private equity firms such as TPG Capital and a group that comprises Bain Capital LLC and Vista Equity Partners, people briefed on the process have previously said.
Several other strategic bidders are also in the second round.
Yahoo declined to comment. Representatives for Quicken Loans and Berkshire did not return requests for comment.
The companies in the second round of bidding are seeking to buy one of the best-known names in Silicon Valley — although one that ceded a longtime hold on the Internet to younger rivals such as Google Inc and Facebook inc. Repeated efforts to reinvent itself, led by a string of chief executives, including now-Yahoo chief executive officer Marissa Mayer, have failed to take hold.
As Yahoo and its bankers canvassed for preliminary bids, the company received criticism, including from some prospective bidders and from the activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP, over the state of the sales process.
However, the company can point to progress. It settled a looming board fight with Starboard, offering the investment firm four director seats. One of those is held by Starboard chief executive officer Jeffrey Smith, who now sits on the special board committee overseeing the potential sale.
Yahoo executives, including Mayer, and advisers have been sitting down with bidders in the second round, furnishing those suitors with additional details.
Among them is Gilbert, who built his US multibillion-dollar fortune with the financial empire. However, he is also an active investor in his own right, having taken stakes in a number of online startups.
Yahoo would be orders of magnitude larger than those other technology investments and significantly more troubled. However, Gilbert’s consortium, like other bidders, has been interested in the still-significant digital footprint the company possesses, including its popular finance and sports sites.
Backing him is his friend Buffett — who has long spoken of his aversion to technology companies, outside of an investment in IBM Corp. However, the role of Berkshire in the Gilbert bid would be financial, with Buffett’s conglomerate collecting interest from its financing with the opportunity to convert those holdings into an equity stake in the company.
Both men are familiar with Yahoo in other ways. Buffett turned to Yahoo Finance for the first-ever live stream of the question-and-answer session at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting on April 30.
In addition, one of Berkshire’s directors is former Yahoo president Susan Decker.
Providing advice to the Gilbert consortium are former Yahoo chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig, now chief executive officer of the education company Chegg, and former Yahoo advertising senior vice president Tim Cadogan, now the head of the online advertising platform OpenX. Neither has expressed interest in rejoining Yahoo, one of the people briefed on the matter said.
Buffett and Gilbert have another — albeit more troubled — tie to the Internet company. In 2014, Berkshire, Quicken Loans and Yahoo briefly united to offer a “Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge” tied to the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament that year, although the contest was called off and devolved into a morass of lawsuits.
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