Bidding Prices For Yahoo's Internet Assets Notably Below Prior Expectations

Shares of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) tumbled 5 percent Friday morning following a concerning report from The Wall Street Journal that the company's asset sale process may not be proceeding according to plans.

Yahoo has been looking to sell its Internet assets for quite some time and the bidding process was said to have entered into a second round in late April. Bloomberg said at that time that bidders for the internet assets presented offers between $4 billion and $8 billion.

However, WSJ reported on Friday that potential bidders, including the perceived frontrunner Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), feel a price range of $2 billion to $3 billion is more appropriate.

Related Link: Second Round Of Bids For Yahoo Ending Early June; Bob Peck Maintains At Buy

WSJ added that Yahoo has set a deadline of the first week of June for a fresh round of bids and that it's possible some bids could still fall above the $2 billion to $3 billion range.

It's possible that bidders revised their offers lower following presentations by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and the company's own disclosure of non-public data that "detailed the company's flagging prospects."

The publication also cited a "person who attended a meeting" with Mayer who said that the company acknowledged it's still in the middle of a turnaround. Meanwhile, revenue growth from Yahoo's "mavens" - a metric the company created to track its mobile, video, native and social ads - rose just 6.8 percent in the recent quarter, marking a decrease from a 26 percent growth seen in the prior quarter.