Deals
Yahoo Japan’s Stock Buyback Offsets Big Shareholder Divestment
- SoftBank acquiring 11 percent stake in Yahoo Japan from Altaba
- Yahoo Japan buying back shares, keeping SoftBank stake intact
Yahoo Japan headquarters in Tokyo.
Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg
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Yahoo Japan Corp. is blunting the impact of a large stock sale by a big shareholder, buying back $2 billion worth of its shares in a complicated deal with SoftBank Group Corp.
The deal was triggered by Altaba Inc., which warned in February that it would start divesting its 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, fueling a selloff of the Japanese web portal as investors braced for the prospect of more shares hitting the market. Altaba was created last year when Yahoo! Inc. was sold, so that its lucrative stakes in Yahoo Japan and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. could be carved out.