Yahoo cofounder David Filo considered joining a group that tried to buy the company
According to a new regulatory filing submitted Friday, a group only identified as "Sponsor F" asked Filo to provide equity financing in its bid to purchase Yahoo's core business, and Yahoo's cofounder indicated he was open to discussing participating in a bid.
"Mr. Filo indicated that he would be willing to discuss a potential equity participation in a bid by Sponsor F or, if requested, by another financial sponsor bidder if it would help to facilitate maximizing stockholder value in the strategic alternatives process," the filing says.
The filling doesn't say whether Filo ended up joining the bid. But it does disclose what Sponsor F's bid looked like: a base purchase price of $4.35 billion, without including Yahoo's IP assets or real-estate property.
Sponsor F had initially made a joint bid with another party only identified as "Sponsor E," but after Sponsor E pulled out of the deal, it sought Filo's help for equity financing, it says. It's unclear who exactly Sponsor F is, but it's likely a financial firm, since the filing refers to companies involved in the auction process as "strategic bidders" instead.
Filo, who owns 7.4% of the company and sits on Yahoo's board, had to exclude himself from all subsequent board meetings after he expressed his interest to be part of Sponsor F.
Filo cofounded Yahoo back in 1994 with Jerry Yang as Stanford students. It first started as a simple director of websites, called "Jerry and Dave's Guide to the World Wide Web," but later changed its name to Yahoo.
The filing says Yahoo initially talked with 51 parties for a potential deal to sell its core internet business. Verizon eventually won the auction, buying Yahoo's web properties for roughly $5 billion.