Verizon will be submitting a second round bid of more than $3 billion to acquire the assets of struggling Internet company Yahoo, anonymous sources tell the Wall Street Journal. Verizon is primarily interested in Yahoo's advertising and content businesses, and does not want the acquisition to include Yahoo's patents and real estate holdings states the source.
While AT&T is also expected to bid on Yahoo's assets Barclays analysts
aren't convinced AT&T intends to try very hard, leaving Verizon as the leading candidate to acquire Yahoo after spending another $4.4 billion to acquire AOL
last year.
"We are hard pressed to see AT&T enter the Yahoo frenzy," the analysts wrote in a research note.
"Recent reports from Bloomberg suggest that AT&T might be interested in Yahoo's Internet business. While it is premature to assume that AT&T is not interested, we find it hard to envision the carrier earnestly would move forward with a bid given it has its hands full integrating DTV, is participating in the broadcast spectrum auction and seems focused on asset optimization vs. augmentation."
Previous reports suggested that Yahoo received 10 bids ranging from $4 billion to $8 billion for the company's core Internet assets.