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NEW YORK, United States — Starboard Value, the activist fund run by Jeff Smith, is urging Yahoo! Inc. to drop the plan to spin off its stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and instead sell its search and display advertising businesses.
The company should keep its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan Corp. in the existing corporate entity, Starboard said in a letter to Yahoo’s board and management dated Thursday. Yahoo should hire a financial adviser to sell the “core” businesses, Starboard said.
“The market has a dim view of the company’s current strategy,” Starboard said. “Based on our evaluation of the risk- adjusted options currently available to Yahoo, as well as the market’s assessment of the current strategy and risks thereof, we believe the board needs to be open to changing direction.”
Starboard doubled its stake in Yahoo in the third quarter, after earlier selling part of its holdings in the Web portal. The investor — one of the most prolific U.S. activists — typically targets small-and mid-cap public companies it considers undervalued, pushing executives and directors for changes such as unit spinoffs and asset sales.
By Erik Schatzker, Ville Heiskanen, with assistance from Beth Jinks; editors: Kenneth Wong, Kim McLaughlin.