Report: Yahoo looks to 'monetize' Alibaba

Yahoo is still looking for ways to monetize their Asian assets, particularly its 40 percent stake in China's Alibaba Group, after it failed to bridge Yahoo Japan's "valuation gap", Reuters stated.

According to a report on Tuesday, it cited Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson as saying it is exploring a simpler deal to "monetize" its stake in Alibaba, which is worth billions of dollars, but he declined to elaborate on these plans. 

Thompson, who took over the reins of the company in January this year, went on to disclose that plans to cash on its stake in Yahoo Japan, which have been underway for more than a year, have been beset by a "valuation gap" that both parties have failed to bridge. This is why Alibaba is now the focus, and Yahoo Japan is now on the company's backburner, the report noted.

Negotiations between Yahoo and Alibaba were reportedly at a deadlock earlier this year, after Yahoo had sought unreasonable terms during discussions in Hong Kong. Yahoo had also been in discussions with its Japanese partners to sell off its share in the Asian company without being forced to pay as much as US$4 billion in taxes.

Yahoo posted a 38 percent increase in its first quarter net income, while revenue came in at US$1.08 billion for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2012, according to a report by ZDNet Asia's sister site, ZDNet.