Remember Yahoo!? After the internet company sold its core business to Verizon Communications, Altaba was what was left.
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The liquidation of Altaba, the former Yahoo, is still going on.
The fund said Monday that it would distribute $7.48 a share in cash to its shareholders in early August, after getting the green light from the Court of Chancery in Delaware, which is overseeing its liquidation.
The payment of $3.9 billion to Altaba holders follows a cash distribution of $8.33 a share in October 2020. Altaba’s remaining net asset value will be just under $8 a share, Barron’s estimates. The timing of the remaining distributions was not indicated in Altaba’s statement.
“Further information regarding the amount and timing of any subsequent liquidating distributions to stockholders will be provided in subsequent press releases or filings with the SEC as such information becomes available,” the company said.
Altaba shares haven’t been publicly traded since October 2019, when they were delisted from the Nasdaq around the time it filed a plan of liquidation and dissolution in Delaware after distributing $51.50 a share in cash to its holders.
At the end of March 2021, Altaba’s net assets stood at about $8 billion, nearly all of that in short-term Treasuries. There are 519.5 million shares outstanding. The March 31 NAV was $15.43 a share.
There has been no quoted market in Altaba shares since the delisting. That frustrated many individual investors, who were left with illiquid securities and no price on their brokerage statements for their Altaba investment, until many brokers began putting a value on the fund last year. Altaba has no ticker symbol.
Altaba has kept a low profile since the 2019 delisting. The fund has been marked on brokerage statements at a discount from NAV. One investor told Barron’s that it was priced at $14.60 a share recently. The discount reflects in part that investors have to wait until they get paid.
The continuing wind-down of Altaba is part of a complex story that began when Yahoo! sold its core online business to Verizon Communications (VZ) in June 2017 and changed its name to Altaba, a reference to what was then its largest asset, a valuable 15% holding in Alibaba Group Holding (BABA), the Chinese e-commerce giant.
Altaba, a closed-end fund, then moved to liquidate the Alibaba stake as well as a smaller interest in Yahoo Japan (YAHOY). Altaba is the largest company ever to liquidate and distribute proceeds from its assets to its shareholders.
Altaba wasn’t immediately available for comment.
Altaba is retaining funds to deal with disputed claims. Barron’s reported in February that a remaining matter for Altaba to address was an audit of its tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service.
Altaba and the IRS agreed that Altaba would hold back about $1.7 billion for potential tax liability “subject to agreed-upon mechanisms for the release of this security as portions of the IRS claims are resolved over time,” according to the annual report.
Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]
