Cromwell Schubarth TechFlash Editor Silicon Valley Business Journal

Verizon Communications will reportedly make a bid to buy Yahoo’s Web business next week and Google may bid for the Sunnyvale online company’s core business.

Bloomberg cited unnamed sources on those two potential Yahoo suitors. Its sources also said that AT&T, Comcast and Microsoft have decided against bidding.

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If successful in buying Yahoo, Verizon reportedly plans to oust CEO Marissa Mayer and put… more

Bloomberg said that Time Inc. is reportedly still evaluating a bid and private equity funds Bain and TPG — among others — are also planning to enter the action, either alone or by backing a strategic acquirer.

First-round bids for the company’s main Web assets are reportedly due on Monday.

Verizon is said to be willing to acquire the Yahoo’s stake in Yahoo Japan Corp., figured to be worth about $8.5 billion, to help sweeten its offer. It may then give the Yahoo Japan stake to its shareholders or sell it.

Another potential player is Japan’s SoftBank Group, which is the majority owner of Yahoo Japan. But discussions there have reportedly centered around Softbank wanting to get a lower licensing fee before any sale, not in buying the rest of the shares in the company.

Verizon and its subsidiary AOL are working with at least three financial advisers on its bid, Bloomberg’s sources said. The company said late last year that it was interested in bidding for Yahoo and hiring so many bankers makes it appear that it is very serious about that.

Bloomberg’s sources said that Verizon values Yahoo’s core business at less than $8 billion, based on the financial information that it’s seen.

If successful, Verizon reportedly would replace Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Marni Walden, Verizon’s executive vice president, who would run a combined Yahoo and AOL.

Re/code reported on Wednesday that a Yahoo slide deck that has been shown to potential buyers projects that its revenue will drop by almost 15 percent and earnings by more than 20 percent for 2016.

Cromwell Schubarth is TechFlash Editor at the Silicon Valley Business Journal.