Yahoo (YHOO) and Monetizing Yahoo! Japan

It may have been hard to monetize Yahoo! Japan before the earthquake and tsunami, but afterwards it may even be harder, at least in the short term, for Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO).

According to Jefferies & Co. Internet analyst Youssef Squali, the desire of Yahoo to monetize Yahoo! Japan will be harder to accomplish in the current atmosphere.

His thought is the company could do a tax-free spin-off of shares to Yahoo! investors, in the form of American Depository Receipts, which would be more likely to be carried out than an outright sale.

Squali maintains a "Buy" rating on Yahoo, which was trading at $16.04, falling $0.29, or 1.78 percent, as of 12:33 PM EDT.