Microsoft working on Yahoo bid with PE firm

Microsoft is working on a fresh bid to acquire internet giant Yahoo Inc and may rope in private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and a Canadian pension board to partly fund the takeover, a report has said.

Under a proposal being discussed, Microsoft would put up several billions of dollars, while additional funding would be sought from the banks and its buyout partners like Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Yahoo had rebuffed a $44.6 billion takeover bid earlier in 2008 from the world's largest software maker Microsoft, which has made a few other failed attempts too in the past to acquire the internet company.

"Private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners is working with one of its investors, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and software giant Microsoft Corp to put together a proposal to buy Yahoo," the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an unnamed source.

The contribution from Silver Lake and the CPP Investment Board for the proposed buyout would be less than what Microsoft puts in, the report said.

As per the proposal being discussed, the buyers would spin off Yahoo's Asia assets after a takeover, WSJ reported.

The report said at least nine private equity firms are eyeing Yahoo and its global audience of 700 million monthly visitors to the company's various websites, including Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports.

Yahoo's board recently fired Chief Executive Carol Bartz after she failed to increase the company's market share. Still, it has been attracting a lot of attention from possible suitors.

Chinese internet company Alibaba Group's head Jack Ma was also recently reported to have said that he was "interested" in buying Yahoo.

Further, an internal memo sent by Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock and co-founders David Filo and Jerry Yang last month to their employees had sparked rumours about a possible sale of the internet company.

In the memo, the top executives said that a "strategic review" process was on to bring the company back to robust growth path and multiple parties have "expressed interest in a number of potential options."

However, they did not specify the "potential options", neither did they name the "multiple parties" which had evinced their interest in the company.