Yahoo has not been having a good past few years. From tons of job cuts and talk of killing off their in-house moonshot factory to the company going up for sale, CEO Marissa Mayer has had to make a lot of tough decisions lately. To say that the company is on the rocks would be a bit of an understatement at this point, so much so that Verizon is hesitant to buy them. Although already on the rocks, things are looking like they could get even worse for Yahoo. With things as they are now, Verizon is unsure if the assets and brand advantage that Yahoo would bring would be worth the price tag and hassle.
Verizon’s CFO, Fran Shammo, was quick to point out that Yahoo is scrambling to bolster itself through some sort of outside means, but are as yet unsure of who to turn to. Verizon is discussing and exploring mergers, outright buying, divestments and all other manner of options for Yahoo. Meanwhile, they still haven’t decided, if they buy, whether to keep or sell Yahoo’s data centers. Yahoo is in less than flattering circumstances at the moment, with their assets, people and brand in decline and at serious risk of full-on irrelevancy. Should that happen, Verizon wouldn’t do too well for themselves by making a purchase offer. Shammo summed up Verizon’s current stance on the matter, saying, “Is it better off outside of our portfolio? We’re looking at that.”
Yahoo has yet to find a suitor or even fully commit to a buyout as a valid survival strategy, opting instead to post up the for sale sign, continue operating as normal and see what happens. For this strategy to play out for them, however, Yahoo would have to come back into prominence and gain a significant number of users, which would, at this point, require a new strategy. Most analysts seem convinced at this point that Yahoo is simply spinning their wheels to delay the inevitable, though their CEO remains somewhat more optimistic than that. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess as to where Yahoo will be even as soon as one year from now.