Telecom sells 49% stake in YahooXtra
Telecom has sold its 49% stake in YahooXtra to Yahoo7.
Telecom has sold its 49% stake in YahooXtra to Yahoo7.
Prior to the transaction, confirmed this afternoon, sees Yahoo7 - which formerly owned a 51% stake - take 100% control.
Telecom refused to disclose terms of the deal.
Yahoo7 is a 50/50 joint venture between US company Yahoo and Australia's Seven Media.
The Yahoo!Xtra business will rebrand to Yahoo! New Zealand with all Yahoo!Xtra staff remaining employed by Yahoo! New Zealand.
Yahoo New Zealand will continue to deliver Telecom customers the same services as today such as Yahoo Mail (now Telecom Broadband's house-brand web mail), Flickr and My Yahoo.
YahooXtra recently reported a net profit of $1.88 million - good for a portal, but not meaningful for a company of Telecom's scale.
Expect further shake-ups in the New Zealand portal scene given the global search engine alliance now being implemented between Yahoo and Microsoft (owner of MSN.co.nz, also run out of Australia).
Telecom shares (NZX:TEL) were up 1.53% to $1.98 in late trading.
Last year, Telecom sold the retail business of its Australian subsidiary AAPT, an 18% stake in retail ISP iiNet, and a 10% stake in Macquarie Telecom, for a total $A140 million.
Telecom's oddball Australian portfolio still includes a 5% stake in Vodafone-Hutchison Australia, trading as Vodafone Australia - acquired when Hutchison's Australian operation (10% owned by Telecom) merged with Vodafone.
Telecom International (which brokers international calls) is also on the block. The division has been up for sale since at least May last year.
Chris Keall
Fri, 15 Apr 2011
Fri, 15 Apr 2011
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Telecom sells 49% stake in YahooXtra
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