Verizon to explore buying Yahoo! if it makes sense: CFO

Verizon Communications Inc would explore a possible acquisition of Yahoo! Inc if a deal made sense, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said.

Shammo, speaking at an investor conference in New York on Monday, said while it still wasn't clear what Yahoo!'s board has planned for the tech company, Verizon would take a look if it were to be offered up for sale. Yahoo! directors met last week to discuss the viability of spinning off its stake in Alibaba Group Holding and whether to seek a buyer for Yahoo!'s web businesses. "It's just like with AOL, I mean, we look at everything across this spectrum," Shammo said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.

"And if we see there is a strategic fit and it makes sense for our shareholders and we can return value, I mean we'll look at it, but at this point it's way too premature to talk about that one." Verizon acquired AOL Inc for $4.4 billion earlier this year, as part of a push into mobile video advertising. Yahoo! owns online sports sites, financial & general news and advertising technology including BrightRoll. Some of the impediments to a sale of Yahoo! is the fate of its stake in Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, and the tax implications of a sale of that unit.