Yahoo Inc.'s inability to snap out of a financial funk may be about to turn the embattled Internet company into a takeover target for the second time in less than three years.
That possibility, floated in a story posted online late Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, lifted Yahoo's shares by nearly 13 percent in Wednesday's after-hours trading.
After snubbing a $47.5 billion buyout offer from the much larger Microsoft Corp. in 2008, Yahoo this time may find itself being courted by a smaller rival with its own problems, AOL Inc.
If Yahoo gets another offer, it will likely be for considerably less than what the company could have gotten had it embraced Microsoft. Yahoo's market value now is less than $25 billion, even after factoring in the runup from the takeover speculation.
Still, it appears AOL realizes it would need to bring in more financial muscle to get a deal done. The company, based in New York, is discussing the possible Yahoo offer with several firms that specialize in buying companies whose stocks have fallen out of favor, according to the Journal.
Source:- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101014/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_yahoo_aol