Starboard urges Yahoo to drop its spinoff of Alibaba stake

Activist investor Starboard is pushing Yahoo to abandon the planned spinoff of its valuable stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba and sell its Internet search and advertising business instead.

In a letter to the company, New York-based Starboard says that a better deal would be to sell its search and advertising business because executives haven’t been able to turn the business around. It’s a reverse in thinking by Starboard which previously wanted the company to spin off the Alibaba stake.

Yahoo Inc., based in Sunnyvale, California, announced to sell its $30 billion stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. earlier this year. Yahoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning.

Starboard has a nearly 1 percent stake in Yahoo, according to FactSet.