The parent company of British tabloid newspaper and website the Daily Mail is in discussions with “several” private-equity firms about a possible bid for Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal said Sunday.
Although Yahoo was an early Internet pioneer and is used by around one billion people, it has fallen behind Google in Internet searches and has been steadily losing ground in online advertising.
Struggling Yahoo has been briefing prospective buyers of its core assets, according to previous US media reports that indicated the list of suitors also included US telecommunications titan Verizon, Google-parent Alphabet, and Time Inc.
Yahoo has set an April 18 deadline for bids.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the WSJ said Daily Mail & General Trust’s potential bid could take one of two forms.
In one, a private-equity firm would acquire Yahoo’s core web business and merge its media and news properties with the Mail’s global online operations. The merged units would form a new company that would be run by the Mail.
The other scenario would see the private-equity partner “aim to acquire the entirety of Yahoo’s core web business, with the Mail taking over the news and media properties,” the WSJ said.
“Those assets include verticals such as Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports plus Yahoo News and a video operation whose big star is Katie Couric,” it added.