It is no surprise that
Daniel Loeb
likes Yahoo (
YHOO
), but another purchase of a parcel of shares affirmed it. On
July 23 - a week after the company announced the appointment of
new President and COE Marissa Miller - he added 4,212,400 Yahoo
shares at about $15.76 per share.
Loeb began amassing his Yahoo stock in 2011, the year the
company's revenue dropped to $5 billion from $6.3 billion the
previous year, its lowest level since 2004. It immediately became
clear through a vociferous and public letter-writing campaign
Loeb launched that he wanted to force change at the company. One
of his victories was ousting the company's then-CEO, Scott
Thompson, after exposing untruths on Thompson's resume in May.
Shortly thereafter, he won a seat on the board of directors that
hired Mayer.
Loeb also presented a litany of the problems he perceived at the
company at the Salt conference in May. In addition to management
bungling good opportunities, he said, the company has "missed
every important trend on the Internet: social, local, you name
it," according to CNBC.
Nevertheless, Yahoo's stock has increased about 15% since he
originally purchased shares.
The company's second-quarter results did not reflect positive
benefits from the year's changes. GAAP revenue was $1.2 billion,
decreased 1 percent from the second quarter of 2011. GAAP net
earnings per diluted share were $0.18, flat over the previous
year.
The company did announce a slew of business highlights, including
new partnerships with CNBC, Clear Channel and Spotify, and
strategic agreements with Alibaba and Facebook (
FB
).
Yahoo's agreement with Facebook is to launch a new advertising
partnership, extend and expand distribution arrangements, and
settle their existing patent claims against each other.
The strategic agreement with Alibaba reached in May is for
Alibaba to repurchase up to half of Yahoo's stake in it for about
$7.1 billion, as the first step in a multi-stage plan for "value
realization." Yahoo will cash out its remaining stake in Alibaba
in stages, the first being a requirement for Alibaba, should it
go public, to either repurchase one-quarter of Yahoo's current
stake at the IPO price or allow Yahoo to sell those shares in the
IPO. Following the IPO, Alibaba is also required to help Yahoo
dispose of its remaining shares.
Loeb's stake in Yahoo now totals 74,712,800 shares, or 6.11% of
its outstanding shares. For more of Loeb's buys and sells,
see his portfolio here
.
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