Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has seen its shares pop again after the New York Times is reporting that talks may be about restart with Alibaba. The web site’s Dealbook subsidiary reported that the sides are coming together once again. Issues such as this are often hard to quantify, but the reality is that there are few other opportunities as long as the tie-up remains as it is. Very few outside parties are interested in multi-billion deals, stakes, and/or partnerships if there is a problem between two key partners and their management teams. The reports signal that talks took place last week in Silicon Valley and that the talks were private. If you just read it at face value, we’d treat it back as a “maybe” rather than a “likely” event.
Yahoo! shares are up 1.6% at $15.40 on over 16 million shares of common stock. The call options are getting more active in the $15 and $16 strike prices for the weekly options and in the $15, $16, and $17 strikes in the April call options.
It would make sense for at least a revisitation of the minds here. Still, logic might indicate that if there was a belief of a sudden return to diplomacy was underway then shares would likely be far higher. Stay tuned!
Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. www.247wallst.com.