Ah, the man with the magic touch.
Former AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller is trying to raise money to purchase a portion or all of Yahoo Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Miller has been talking to private equity investors and sovereign wealth funds for months in hopes of raising money for a Yahoo deal, and it is unclear whether the talks have progressed or are just continuing, these people say.
Mr. Miller believes he can do a deal that would be worth around $20 to $22 a share to Yahoo shareholders, these people say, which would involve raising about $28 billion to $30 billion to purchase the entire company.
Sources close to Yahoo expressed deep skepticism that Mr. Miller would succeed in lining up investors. Indeed, given banks’ reluctance to lend money right now, financing a deal of this size would be extremely difficult, even from deep-pocketed sovereign wealth funds.
- from WSJ
According to the Journal’s story, Miller has talked to private equity investors and sovereign wealth funds for months with an aim to raising money for a deal.
He believes he can assemble a deal worth $20 to $22 a share, which would involve him raising about $28 billion to $30 billion to buy the whole company, the Journal reported.
Miller discussed the idea with some Yahoo board members but that it has not come up for an official board discussion yet, the Journal reported.
- from Reuters
Meanwhile, Yahoo rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic:
Yahoo is not waiting around for 2008 to pack it in, and has released the top stories (and top searches) for the year that still has 30 days to go. I just spent 20 minutes on the site, and I love it. The presentation is simple, elegant and inviting. It is definitely better than most of the lists magazines are going to churn out. I wonder why Yahoo doesn’t do more of these technology-enabled media properties.
- from GigaOm
