Verizon bought AOL in a deal valued at $4.4bn in 2015. SoftBank owns most of Yahoo
The two executives leading the negotiations are Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL but a former senior executive
Yahoo has already issued financial details to potential bidders. US website Re/code has obtained access to this information, which shows Yahoo is rapidly losing business.
Revenues have declined from $4.4bn in 2014 to $4.1bn in 2015 and are expected to be $3.5bn in 2016, writes Kara Swisher of Re/code. Earnings are following a similar path, from $1.4bn in 2014 and expected to be $750m in 2016. Yahoo has $30bn worth of shares in the Alibaba group of China and $8bn worth of Yahoo Japan, notes Swisher.