SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo Inc. has given prospective buyers until April 11 to present preliminary offers for some of its assets, the Wall Street Journal reported late Monday.

In letters to potential suitors, the troubled Internet company asked them what assets they were interested in, how they would finance such acquisitions and what terms would have to be met on their end, the newspaper said, quoting people familiar with the matter.

The paper said some buyers might be interested in Yahoo’s core web business or parts of it, while others might bid for stakes in Alibaba or Yahoo Japan.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who took over in 2012 with the mission of boosting growth, is in an increasingly difficult position as she has failed to show concrete progress.

Although Yahoo is one of the best-known names on the Internet and is used by around one billion people, it has fallen behind Google in Internet searches and has been steadily losing ground in online advertising.

Ironically, Mayer joined Yahoo as chief executive from Google a result of a proxy war launched by an activist investor group.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2016