“One of the few good things the departing Yahoo! Inc.NASDAQ:YHOO management did right was buy into Alibaba.com Limited HKG:1688 but now that is coming to an end, the influx of cash, $13 to $15b will lift Yahoo!, but what will Yahoo do after that is another story.” Shayne Heffernan said in a note to traders today.

Alibaba, Yahoo and Japan’s Softbank Corp, which owns a 30 percent stake in Alibaba and is a partner in Yahoo Japan, have been looking to unwind their complex web of relationships.

Trading in shares of Alibaba.com Ltd was halted on Thursday pending an announcement regarding its parent, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, which reportedly plans to buy back the 40 percent stake in it held by Yahoo Inc.

Under pressure from investors, Yahoo’s board has been considering various options to turn around the struggling company, including restructuring its valuable Asia holdings.

Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba Group could be worth up to $13 billion, based on the $1.6 billion paid for a 5 percent stake in Alibaba by Yunfeng Capital, Silver Lake and other investors in November.

Alibaba.com gave no further details in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, and a spokesman at Alibaba Group declined to comment on Thursday.

Shares in Alibaba.com jumped 5.5 percent on Wednesday, the biggest one-day percentage gain in more than 11 weeks, with some speculation a deal could come through, and some talk it could involve taking the listed unit private. The stock closed at HK$9.25, its highest close since November 15.

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Feb 9th, 2012and filed underBRIC, Equities, Latest News, Oil, Shayne Heffernan.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.