Yahoo abandons Alibaba spinoff, will move to sell Internet business

Yahoo will no longer look to sell its stake in Alibaba and will instead spin off its Internet business to a newly formed company in a move that could make that business easier to sell.

The decision follows growing concerns that selling the Alibaba stake would result in a hefty tax bill. Once the spinoff is complete, Yahoo will look to sell its online assets as well as its share in Yahoo Japan.

Those assets are an underpinning of Yahoo's mobile advertising business, which will claim 2.9 percent of U.S. mobile ad revenues this year, according to estimates from eMarketer. Yahoo has largely failed to monetize its Internet business, leading to speculation about who might acquire them. Among possible candidates are mobile network operators including Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint parent SoftBank. Release