Yahoo decides not to spin off Alibaba stake

In what is perhaps not an unexpected move, Yahoo's board has announced that it would not be pursuing the spin-off of Yahoo's close to $30billion Alibaba stake. Instead, they will now be exploring the sale of Yahoo's core business by spinning it off into a separate company.

This move comes shortly after activist shareholder, Starboard Value LP who hatched the idea of the Alibaba sale switched tact and suggested that Yahoo sell its core business instead. A lack of certainty that Yahoo would avoid taxes on the Alibaba sale is likely the main reason.

Some likely buyers include AT&T, Verizon and Alibaba. However, based on certain news sources, it seems that Alibaba might not be interested in Yahoo's core business.

Key Trade Ideas - Yahoo! Alibaba Rio Tinto

With news about the future of Yahoo! and what it will do with its stake in Alibaba, IG UK takes a technical look at both stocks.

In addition, Rio Tinto is close to 2009 levels and might offer a good trading opportunity.

Carl Icahn urges Apple on stock buyback

Activist investor Carl Icahn continues to urge Apple to carry out share buybacks.

Investors are buying too through their normal brokers like HSBC.

Thanksgiving Sales Up - Good for Ebay and Amazon

Ebay and Amazon are trading higher after good sales data came in from Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  Most retail analysts estimate that there will be a 4.0 to 4.5% growth for holiday sales this year, with ecommerce making up for a dip in store traffic on Black Friday.

Ebay closed trading at $54.88 and Amazon at $338.64.

Piper Jaffray has raised its price target on Amazon to $400 from $350, believing that Amazon will hold its ecommerce market share through the holiday season.

Meanwhile, statistics have shown that eBay monthly users from U.S. have dropped to a new 3 year low. This probably is some concern that Ebay's marketplace is not performing as well as it should be. Icahn Capital LP has been pushing for Ebay to spin off its Paypal business and that could serve as catalyst for the stock.

Carl Icahn Increases Stake in Hertz Global Holdings

Billionaire and activist shareholder Carl Icahn has increased his stake in Hertz Global Holdings. Through Icahn Capital LP, his stake in Hertz has gone up from 8.7% to 10.8%.  This is based on SEC filings which indicates that Icahn now owns  49.3 million shares in the car rental company.  His holdings of Hertz is now over $1.2billion.

Newly appointed CEO, John Tague, has also committed his future and belief in Hertz by investing $2 million of his own money into the company.  

Carl Icahn who is known for being a very active shareholder was already the largest shareholder of Hertz and had pushed for management changes.  Former CEO, Mark Frissora was forced to step down in an accounting error that forced Hertz to restate its earnings for the past 3 years.

Hertz shares had fallen significantly over recent times.  It operates two distinct divisions: (i) car rental segment, and (ii) equipment rental business (e.g. earth moving equipment, construction trucks, etc).  There are plans to split off the equipment rental company into a standalone company.  However, the accounting scandal will probably cause some delays to the plans.  Hertz has also been hurt by safety recalls which means that cars are taken off the road until the necessary repairs are done.

Only for the patient investor perhaps?