Yahoo went up more than 7 percent in the half-hour after chief executive Marissa Mayer announced plans to spin off the tech giant’s remaining stake in Alibaba Group into a separate investment company.
The tax-free spin off will see Yahoo’s 384 million Alibaba shares, which are valued at $40 billion, become part of SpinCo, a publicly traded company whose stock will be distributed to Yahoo shareholders.
Mayer announced the spin off as part of Yahoo’s fourth quarter and full year earnings report, where the company announced revenue that miss just slightly from Wall Street predictions. Yahoo reported revenue of $1.18 billion after ad commissions, down slightly from $1.2 billion in the same period last year, and adjusted earnings of 30 cents per share. Analysts were expecting fourth quarter revenue after ad commissions of $1.19 billion and adjusted earnings of 29 cents per share.
For the full year, Yahoo reported revenue after ad commissions of $4.6 billion and adjusted earnings of $1.57 per share.
