Courtesy of Benzinga.
Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) gained more than three percent Wednesday after a Forbes columnist speculated the company may be acquired by Alibaba or Softbank.
The same writer, Eric Jackson, on Monday said Yahoo could be acquired by Facebook, Apple, Microsoft or Google.
Jackson has a long position in Yahoo.
Either Softbank or Alibaba would realize tax advantages in acquiring Yahoo, and use cash from Yahoo's balance sheet to complete the deal, Jackson said.
Alibaba would likely sell Yahoo's core business.
"I suspect they would be concerned that US politicians would object to a big Chinese company having access to Americans' emails," Jackson said.
Softbank might retain the core business.
"Recall that Nikesh Arora just left Google to become Vice Chairman of SoftBank and help build out their US Internet operations." Jackson wrote. "That's the same Arora who tried to get Google to buy Yahoo."
Yahoo closed at $34.71, up 3.3 percent.