TPG among 3 groups to make final Yahoo round

New York, June 15: Private equity suitors TPG, Advent International and a partnership of Sycamore Partners and Vector Capital Management are into the final round of bidding for Yahoo, according to people familiar with the matter.

The three buyout groups join Verizon Communications, AT&T and Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert in the last weeks of the bidding process, with each vying to win Yahoo’s coreinternetbusiness,aswellas some of its intellectual property and real estate assets.

All of the offers value Yahoo from about $4 billion to $6 billion except for Verizon, said one of thepeople,allof whomaskednot to be identified as the matter is private. Verizon’s bid was lower — from $3.75 billion to $4 billion — because it doesn’t include Yahoo’s patents and real estate, the person said. Verizon would be willing to acquire both additional assets, people familiar with the matter said last week.

The bids are difficult to compare because each includes a different amount of Yahoo’s intellectual property, the people said. Assessing offers for different assetsextendedtheauctionperiod, they said. Buyout firm TPG offered from $5 billion to $6 billion for Yahoo’s core internet business, patents and real estate holdings. TPG, which sees itself as Yahoo’s best chance to turn around a struggling business, has had preliminary talks with strategic partners, although it continuestobidalone,oneof the people said.

A winning bidder for some combination of Yahoo’s assets will probably be chosen early next month, the people said.

Sycamore and Vector, two investment firms that have teameduptobid,typicallyinvest in smaller assets. Bloomberg