The owner of the Daily Mail is in talks to buy struggling internet firm Yahoo.
London-based Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT), the parent company of Mailonline and the Daily Mail’s stable of newspapers, has confirmed that it may make a bid for Yahoo by teaming up with a private equity partner.
It’s been suggested by financial analysts that the pair would then split the assets, with the private equity firm taking over Yahoo’s main web business and DMGT running Yahoo’s news and media assets including Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo News plus Yahoo’s video arm.
Alternatively, a private equity firm could buy Yahoo outright and merge its news assets with DMGT’s existing online operation, Mailonline, the most visited English language news website in the world.
Yahoo has an estimated value of $38bn but its worth has dropped by 30% in the last 18 months in the face of competition from Google and Facebook, triggering shareholder unrest and its intention to sell.
Earlier this year Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s chief executive, said the ailing company would cut 1,600 employees in a bid to return it to profit.
Yahoo has said all bids from interested parties must be tabled by April 18.
