解读雅虎剥离阿里股份：梅耶尔在为自己的改革争取时间

    玛丽莎•梅耶尔担任雅虎首席执行官已有两年半的时间，期间并非一帆风顺。但梅耶尔有一个支撑雅虎股价的法宝，那就是该公司持有的大量阿里巴巴股票。2005年，雅虎创始人杨致远向阿里巴巴进行了一笔小投资，去年 9月，已成长为中国电商巨头的阿里上市，雅虎因此获利 94 亿美元。如今，雅虎仍持有阿里15.4%的股份，许多股东认为，这部分阿里股份比雅虎公司本身更值钱。因此，去年阿里上市后不久，维权投资公司Starboard Value就开始向梅耶尔施压，要求雅虎以最节税的方式，卖掉剩余的阿里股份。[Starboard Value公司还认为，雅虎应该把自己卖给同属“Web 1.0时代老兵”的美国在线。]

    本周二，梅耶尔宣布将剥离剩余的阿里股份，以此安抚Starboard及其他心怀不满的投资者。此消息宣布于雅虎发布四季度财报前。分拆阿里股份，将帮助雅虎节税160亿美元，而雅虎股东将拥有公开交易新实体SpinCo的股份。分拆将在今年四季度进行。(雅虎公司将继续持有雅虎日本的股份，后者价值70亿美元。)

    鉴于阿里股份与雅虎核心业务剥离，梅耶尔承受着前所未有的压力，必须实现众人对她的期许，即帮助雅虎华丽转身。在雅虎的营收电话会议上，梅耶尔花了大半时间，来兜售其简称为“MaVeNS”计划的进展。

    “MaVeNS”代表移动、视频、原生（广告）和社交。(与别别扭扭的MaVeNS一词类似的，还有广告界的另一大作：“SoLoMo”，代表社交、本地、移动。)梅耶尔认为，上述四个领域的增长，将弥补展示广告业务的衰退。

    梅耶尔盛赞雅虎移动业务的增长，该业务在四季度带来2.54亿美元收入，环比增长23%。如今，雅虎媒体业务每月的受众人数超过 5.75亿美元。移动业务全年总收入达12.6亿美元。上述增长令人鼓舞，在梅耶尔加盟雅虎前，根本不存在这项收入。梅耶尔在电话会议上表示：“2012年底，雅虎管理团队改弦易张，将此前颇显混乱、基于网络的战略，变成如今极为出色、基于应用程序的战略。”

    但这在雅虎整体业务中仍然只占一小块，而雅虎整体业务仍在继续萎缩。雅虎季度收入11.79亿美元，同比下降1%。而公司净利润为1.66亿美元，同比下滑84%。此外，雅虎不按一般公认会计原则计算的每股收益为0.30美元，同比下降了35%。

    由于宣布了拆分阿里股份，雅虎的股价在盘后交易中上涨超过7%。拆分在今年年底完成后，雅虎的股票将失去阿里这一支撑。梅耶尔自称“资本管家”，但一旦雅虎不再持有阿里股份，梅耶尔这方面的才华将无用武之地。自梅耶尔加盟以来，雅虎将首次完全以自身表现接受众人评判。

    梅耶尔清楚这一点，过去一年，她一直在强调要放眼长期。她甚至指出，乔布斯重返苹果五年后，才推出iPod。但在梅耶尔帮助雅虎拿出自己的“iPod”前，股东们只能将就接受梅耶尔的MaVeNS计划了。（财富中文网）

    译者：Hunter

    审稿：Sissi

    Marissa Mayer’s two and a half-year tenure as chief executive of Yahoo YHOO -2.93% hasn’t exactly been smooth. But she’s had one big safeguard keeping the company’s stock up: a giant stake in Alibaba BABA -1.01% . When the massive Chinese e-commerce startup went public last September, Yahoobanked $9.4 billion on a tiny investment its co-founder, Jerry Yang, made back in 2005. Yahoo still owns a 15.4% stake in Alibaba, and many of its shareholders believe it’s more valuable than Yahoo itself.

    That’s why, shortly after Alibaba’s IPO last fall, activist investor Starboard Value began pressuring Mayer to sell off the remaining stake in the most tax-efficient way possible. (The firm also believes Yahoo should sell itself to its Web 1.0 peer AOL.)

    On Tuesday, Mayer appeased Starboard other disgruntled investors by announcing a spin-off of its remaining Alibaba stake. The spin-off, announced ahead of the release of Yahoo’s fourth quarter earnings report, will save the company $16 billion in taxes and give Yahoo shareholders stakes in a new, publicly traded entity called SpinCo. It is set to happen in the fourth quarter of this year. (Yahoo will retain its stake in Yahoo Japan, which is worth $7 billion.)

    With the Alibaba shares separated from Yahoo’s core business, Mayer is under more pressure than ever to deliver the turnaround she was hired to execute. She spent the majority of Yahoo’s earnings call touting the company’s progress on her plan, which carries a new acronym: MaVeNS.

    MaVeNS stands for mobile, video, native and social. (The awkward term follows the advertising world’s equally as cumbersome “SoLoMo,” as in social, local, mobile.) Mayer believes growth in these areas will offset declines in display advertising.

    She touted growth in Yahoo’s mobile business, which brought in $254 million in revenue in the fourth quarter, a 23% increase over the previous quarter. Yahoo’s media properties now reach more than 575 million people each month. Mobile accounted for $1.26 billion in gross revenue for the year. It’s encouraging growth—that revenue did not exist before Mayer joined the company. “In late 2012, this management team changed course from a confused, web-based strategy which preceded us, to a beautiful, app-based strategy,” she said during the call.

    But that is still a small sliver of Yahoo’s overall business, which continues to shrink. The company’s $1.179 billion in quarterly revenue was a 1% decline from last year. The company’s net earnings of $166 million marks an 84% decline over the year prior. And Yahoo’s non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.30 is a 35% decline over the year prior.

    Thanks to the spin-off announcement, Yahoo’s shares jumped more than 7% in after-hours trading. After the deal is executed at the end of this year, Yahoo’s stock will no longer be padded by Alibaba. Mayer’s deft moves as a “steward of capital,” in her words, won’t matter once Yahoo owns none of Alibaba. For the first time since she joined the company, Yahoo will be evaluated solely on its own merits.

    Mayer knows this, and for the last year, she has emphasized the long game. She even pointed out that Steve Jobs didn’t come up with the iPod until five years after he returned to Apple. But until Mayer comes up with Yahoo’s version of the iPod—metaphorically speaking—shareholders will have to settle for MaVeNS.