US Engine Yahoo looks at "Strategic ALternatives" to separate its Alibaba stake

The US search engine Yahoo has confirmed it is looking at "strategic alternatives" for its business - including splitting off its stake in Chinese online retailer Alibaba.

Yahoo said it is setting up a committee to look into how the business can be reorganised to reverse its current financial woes.

 

The firm's share price has fallen by more than 40% since the end of 2014.

Boss Marissa Mayer has been under pressure to revitalise the business.

Earlier this month Yahoo confirmed it was cutting 15% of its workforce after reporting a $4.3bn (33bn) loss for the year.

The job

cuts will mean the company will have around 9,000 staff by the end of 2016.

Ms Mayer said: "Separating our Alibaba stake from Yahoo's operating business is essential to maximizing value for our shareholders.

"We can achieve this by working with the committee... while in parallel, aggressively executing our strategic plan to strengthen our growth businesses and improve efficiency and profitability."

Although Yahoo is still one of the best-known names on the Internet, and has around one billion users, it has fallen behind Google in Internet search.

The poor performance has lead some shareholders to call for the management team including Ms Mayer to be removed.

Yahoo has appointed Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and PJT partners as its financial advisers.

The California tech group said it would not be making any further comment on the matter until an agreement had been reached.