Yahoo Might Be Lost Without Alibaba

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Asian business is still the major driver of shares at Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) according to a new report on the company from Goldman Sachs. Yahoo’s part ownership of AliBaba is going to be diluted when the company heads for IPO in the coming months, and that means investors will have little to bet on at the company. Yahoo can’t seem to get investors excited about its core business, and that needs to change to drive value.

Yahoo Might Be Lost Without Alibaba

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) executives have made several comments about the exciting new strategy that the company is implementing. CEO Marissa Mayer has managed to shore up the losses in the firm’s business, but the new strategy is difficult to see beyond a logo change.

Yahoo value-focused in Asia

AliBaba has been performing incredibly well and that is good for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). The IPO of the Chinese Internet giant will add a wad of cash to Yahoo, allowing it to make acquisitions and invest in projects. The Goldman analysts assign a value of $105 billion on Alibaba, and they have an interesting idea about what Yahoo could do with the proceeds.

Goldman puts a speculative valuation of $45 on Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) stock, a 55 percent premium over the $32.22 the security traded at time of writing. The valuation presumes that the company liquidates its entire Asian investment and uses the proceeds for a large buyback, a move that has become popular among cash-rich businesses.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is still telling the market that great things are on the way, but apart from the company’s Asian performance its hard to see how the company is going to compete with other Internet ad giants like Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).

Yahoo’s future

The Goldman analysts expect that Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) will show revenue of $1.089 billion for the third quarter, ahead of consensus expectations by a small amount. The firm expects the company to earn around 33 cents per share on that revenue, five cents ahead of consensus numbers. Those figures would show Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) holding, but not a growth company by any means.

Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) needs to show investors it can do more than buy companies and rely on AliBaba sales if it wants investors to stay interested in the company in the coming year. A look at what the firm means by ‘new strategy’ would be a good start.

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