Can Buffett-backed bid unlock Yahoo growth where others failed?
REUTERS
DEBORAH TODD
Warren Buffett struck media gold with a 2012 investment in debt-laden Media General Inc. Now the famed investor may try to reprise that success by supporting a bid for Yahoo Inc's Internet assets.
The Berkshire Hathaway Inc chairman is backing a consortium that includes Quicken Loans Inc founder Dan Gilbert, that is seeking to buy Yahoo's online portfolio, Reuters reported on Friday.
The consortium is in the second round of bidding in the auction for Yahoo's assets, people familiar with the matter said. Buffett is helping to finance the offer, one of the people added.
If they succeed, the investment would be a relatively rare foray into digital media for Buffett, whose portfolio is heavily weighted toward U.S. insurers, industrial companies and major consumer brands.
Yahoo, once the world's largest consumer email service, has struggled in recent years to compete with Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc for digital advertising market share.
In February, CEO Marissa Mayer announced the company would auction off its Internet business and cut 15 percent of its workforce. It is also selling $1 billion to $3 billion in noncore assets such as patents and property.
Poynter Institute media business analyst Rick Edmonds said Buffett's history of betting on struggling companies that maintain a large consumer base could work in Yahoo's favor.
In the case of Media General, Buffett bought a majority of the company’s newspapers, making him one of the largest publishers in the United States as the industry struggled with plummeting advertising and subscription revenue.
Buffett also provided nearly $450 million in debt relief to Media General, whose remaining business focused on dozens of local U.S. television stations and related websites, in return for a stake of nearly 20 percent in the company. The day the transaction was announced, Media General's shares jumped 30 percent. The stock closed Friday at $17.12, up from $3.32 in May 2012.
"It's kind of consistent with Buffett's pattern of buying things that are out of favor, undervalued and have a big customer base," Edmonds said. The paradox is Yahoo's huge, it remains huge, and it's got a lot of customers. It's not the case customers are fleeing them right and left, it's just that no one can get a good pattern of growth."
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