DST Global, the Russian investor who already owns stakes in Facebook, Groupon, Spotify, Twitter, Zynga, and other prominent web companies, could make a bid for Yahoo jointly with US high tech fund Silver Lake and China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. The news was reported yesterday by Bloomberg from “three people with direct knowledge of the matter.”
Such a joint bid, however, is far from being certain, since discussions are at an early stage.
Last week, Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma publicly expressed interest in buying Yahoo, which owns a 40% stake in the Chinese company. “One of Jack Ma’s major motivations for buying Yahoo is for him to increase his ownership of Alibaba,” Bloomberg quoted Mizuho Securities analyst Muzhi Li as saying.
Given Yahoo’s key role in US online messaging systems, however, the deal could face regulatory obstacles: “If Yahoo is being taken over by an international consortium from China and Russia, the deal will be scrutinized by U.S. agencies very closely,” Muzhi Li said.
Last month, DST and Silver Lake invested over $1.6 billion in Alibaba Group, primarily to buy stock from employees.
