China’s Alibaba Group (listed subsidiary Alibaba.com; 1688.HKG) and Japan’s Softbank (9984.TYO) are looking for private equity partners to make a fresh bid for Yahoo (YHOO.NASDAQ) without the cooperation of its management, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Alibaba and Softbank have been seeking to buy back stakes held by Yahoo, which owns 40% of Alibaba and 35% of Softbank, but have grown impatient in the lack of progress in direct talks, the people said. In one scenario, each firm would re-purchase their respective stakes and partner with a private equity firm to finance the remainder of the purchase. Yahoo would prefer to sell a smaller stake, rather than cede company control; as a result, it has asked interested parties to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which prevents them from discussing their bid with outside parties. The sources said TPG Capital has already signed the NDA, while Microsoft (MSFT.NASDAQ) and Google (GOOG.NASDAQ) have expressed interest in the acquisition but have not signed.
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