Over the past year, Yahoo has experienced a period of dormant growth and shrinking market share. The company ousted its chief executive officer Carol Bartz last month and has been struggling to compete with similar websites like Google and Bing.
Nevertheless, junior marketing and supply chain management double major Ari Hock believes that Yahoo will continue to be one of one of the most visited sites on the web, despite its recent struggles.
“The site has so many useful and easily accessible features, such as weather, news and stock information, and it’s the kind of site that people can go to in order to quickly check up on something,” said Hock. “That’s why I just can’t see it going away anytime soon.”
While Yahoo currently holds a market value of approximately $18 billion, a buyout could ultimately be beneficial. If the company were to go private, it would provide investors with an opportunity to earn some profit.
Yahoo has a number of potential suitors. The most notable of these is the Alibaba Group, a privately owned China-based group of internet-based businesses. Yahoo purchased a 40 percent stake in Alibaba in 2005 for $1 billion, an investment that is now worth about $13 billion.
Jack Ma, Alibaba’s chairman, has been expressing interest in buying out the entire company, particularly because of the strong relationship that he has with Yahoo. He has reportedly had discussions with Yahoo and with other potential buyers.
Junior government and politics major Jack Narron, who visits Yahoo every day, said the site is his first choice for keeping up to date with human-interest stories. However, he believes that the company will be ultimately bought out.
“It’s pretty clear that Yahoo no longer has quite the same share of the market as it once did,” Narron said. “Because of that, I think it is probably better off selling itself now before it continues to lose even more of its value.”
Yahoo’s shares rose by 76 cents, or 5.8%, in light of Ma’s remarks. As of now, the board of Yahoo has neither begun any sales process nor made any major decisions regarding the future of the company.