Dec 2, 2008, 19:13 GMT
San Francisco - Shares in troubled web portal Yahoo rose as much as 16 per cent Tuesday after a report that former AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller was trying to raise funds to buy out all or part of the company.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Miller was talking to private equity firms and sovereign wealth fund managers to raise as much as 30 billion dollars to purchase the company at between 20 dollars and 22 dollars a share.
The report followed a strongly-denied story in the Sunday Times of London that Miller was collaborating with Microsoft to fund a 20- billion-dollar purchase of the company's search business.
The reports came weeks after Yahoo founder Jerry Yang said he would step down as CEO once a replacement had been found. Yang has been widely criticized for his handling of negotiations with Microsoft, which in May offered to buy the company for as much as 47.5 billion dollars, but withdrew after Yang demanded more.
Since then Yahoo's shares have dived from more than 30 dollars a share to just 10 dollars a share. On Tuesday they traded as high as 12.50 a share, a 16 per cent rise on its opening price.
The newspaper reported that while there had been informal contact between Yahoo and Miller, Yahoo sources were skeptical about Miller's success in raising enough funds, given the credit crunch and severe losses among private equity and sovereign wealth funds.
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