Yahoo (YHOO) Growth Driven by Asia

Yahoo's (NASDAQ:YHOO) are driving the growth of the company, even though overall revenue continues to be level.

On the other hand, it appears cash flow at the company should continue to grow, which may help them in the long run, whenever, and if they, ever put together a winning strategy.

The major growth at Yahoo! is coming from its Asian investments, where growth has been surging. Questions surround its achievement of Asian value realization though.

Also continuing challenges in their operations weigh on the company, and that will also have to be addressed to give the company legitimacy as to its future.

Yahoo was trading at $16.35, gaining $0.06, or 0.37 percent, as of 2:38 PM EDT.

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.

Yahoo! (YHOO) Hires Time Warner (TWX) Executive for Sports, Other

Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) announced they have hired a Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) executive to head up sports, games and entertainment online properties.

Taking up the new position is Ken Fuchs, who is vice president of digital distribution and emerging platforms at Time Inc. at this time.

Mickie Rosen, Senior Vice President of Yahoo Media Network in the internal memo, that Yahoo is also creating a new editor-in-chief position which will target "programming initiatives" including "content mix" and "social marketing" across Yahoo's various online businesses.

Fuchs will officially join Yahoo on April 5. He has worked in the past as vice president of strategy at News Corp's (NASDAQ:NWSA) Fox Interactive Media's revenue group.

Uncertainty as to the sale of the 35 percent stake they hold in Yahoo Japan appears to have pressured the stock down

Yahoo closed Tuesday at $16.33, down $0.98, or 5.66 percent.

Yahoo!'s (YHOO) Divesting of Asian Assets Will Take Time to Play Out

News that Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO) may be ready to unlock some value for its shareholders by selling off some of its Asian assets is good news, but the tangled assets will take time to unravel and please all the parties involved.

Motley Fool noted, "The beleaguered Internet giant is reportedly in advanced discussions with Japan's SoftBank to unload its 35% share of Yahoo! Japan, which is valued at about $8 billion. SoftBank already owns 42% of the business and is looking to boost its share, as well as free itself of a long bitter relationship with Yahoo!.

"While some investors might shudder at the thought of an additional $8 billion capital infusion for a company that is notorious for bungling acquisitions, it shows that management is willing and ready to unlock value in some of its investments where the company has been much more successful. In fact, the Japanese version of Yahoo! is still the leading search engine in Japan with 50% of the search queries, compared to Google's (Nasdaq:GOOG) 30% share. However, Yahoo!'s search in Japan is actually powered by Google technology, even as Yahoo! has been using Microsoft's (Nasdaq:MSFT) Bing throughout the rest of the world. Yahoo!'s plan to unload its Yahoo! Japan stake is unlikely to be a cash deal because of the complicated tax implications involved.

"I believe an even bigger win for Yahoo! is the 40% stake it built in China's leading e-commerce business Alibaba. These assets include Taobao and Alipay, China's version of eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) and PayPal. Taobao accounts for nearly 80% of China's rapidly growing e-commerce market, and Alipay recently took over PayPal as the largest online transaction platform in the world. I've written about the importance of these assets to Yahoo! extensively, and the overwhelming undervaluation given to these businesses as implied in Yahoo!'s share price is the main reason the stock is my best idea for 2011."

Yahoo! closed Thursday at $16.86, gaining $16.86, or 1.38 percent.




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Yahoo! (YHOO) Shares Jump on Japan Exit

Shareholders and investors in Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO) like what they heard with the company's announcement they're looking to exit the Japanese market, as they've been hovering around a 4 percent increase in price throughout the trading day so far.

A number of sources has said Yahoo! is talking with Softbank Corp. to sell their 35% stake in Yahoo! Japan. The overall stake was valued at about $6.88 billion as of Tuesday's closing prices. Softbank already owns 42 percent stake in the unit.

The Yahoo! Japan search unit is the largest one in the country, getting a billion hits a day.

Others Asian Yahoo! assets possibly coming into play would be Alibaba'ss Taobao.com retail site or its Alipay.com. Yahoo! has a 40 percent stake in Alibaba, one of the premiere Internet companies in China.

Yahoo! was trading at $16.74, up $0.64, or 3.98 percent, as of 11:39 AM EST.