Yahoo weighs up options

Yahoo is considering inquiries from various parties about its future, but expects to take months to make any decision, Reuters wrote. Yahoo has retained Allen & Co to help it conduct a “strategic review” after it fired Chief Executive Carol Bartz earlier this month. Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners is among the parties that have been in touch with Allen & Co, according to a Reuters source.

(Reuters) – Yahoo Inc has received inquiries from multiple parties about “potential options,” but the struggling Web company expects to take months to decide its future, the company’s co-founders and chairman said in a letter to employees on Friday.

“Our advisers are working with us to develop ideas that we will pursue proactively,” read the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.

Yahoo retained Allen & Co to help it conduct a “strategic review” after it fired Chief Executive Carol Bartz earlier this month.

“They are fielding inquiries from multiple parties that have already expressed interest in a number of potential options,” read the letter on Friday, signed by Chairman Roy Bostock and co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo.

Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners is among the parties that have been in touch with Allen & Co, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Yahoo’s board has started a search for a permanent CEO, the letter said, but provided no details on the progress of the search, or whether the company has hired an executive recruiting firm to oversee the search.

At an all-hands meeting the day after Bartz was fired, Yang said the company was not for sale, according to another source familiar with the matter. Although Friday’s note did not explicitly mention a sale of the company, it said the company was exploring various options to “structure the best approach for the company.”

“While we will move with a sense of urgency, this process will take time,” the letter said. “Months, not weeks.”

A Yahoo spokesman declined to comment on the memo. (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; editing by Andre Grenon)