The portal company plans to buy out Softbank's stakes in Yahoo Korea and in several European Yahoo sites.
Yahoo will pay $500 million in cash to pick up the pieces of global Yahoo portals presently held by Softbank. The company disclosed in a press release its plans to pick up Yahoo UK, Germany, and France from Softbank Holdings, which owns about 30 percent of those properties.
Another agreement between Yahoo and three units holding 33 percent of Yahoo Korea was similarly reached. Both deals should be finished by the end of 2005. Yahoo's top executive commented on the arrangements in a statement:
"This agreement to purchase the remaining shares not already owned by Yahoo! in Europe and Korea demonstrates the confidence we have in our international businesses and our commitment to deliver long-term shareholder value," said Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo!.
"By buying out Softbank's JV interests, our strategic flexibility to take advantage of international growth opportunities in Korea and Europe will be enhanced and this new structure should lead to a more efficient longer-term operating and tax model."
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.
Yahoo Patent Filing Sheds Light On PageRank Google AdSense Delivered Courtesy Of YahooYahoo Releases Go 3.0 BetaYahoo: Pay No Attention To Site ExplorerLeading Yahoo EuropeYahoo and Microsoft OverlapNew Ranking Model Gives Yahoo A BoostYahoo To Jump On Alibaba IPOKorea Gets First Taste of Yahoo's Blog SearchYahoo Wins Some, Loses Some In Korea
Comments
Post new comment