Sale of Alibaba stake 'will cut Yahoo down to size'

Yahoo Inc will be a fraction of its size should the company spin off its remaining stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, making it a takeover candidate for SoftBank Corp or private equity firms.

Marissa Mayer, chief executive of the $46 billion company, is expected to give an update next week about whether Yahoo will sell its Alibaba shares and how it will avoid paying taxes on the move.

With the Chinese e-commerce company accounting for most of Yahoo's value, shareholders would be left holding a United States-based Internet advertising and search business worth about $5 billion to $8 billion, according to analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.