Yahoo looks to sell patents amid potential Verizon bid interest - report

Yahoo Inc expects to haul in more than $1bn from selling about 3,000 patents, as Verizon looks to snap up the outfit's internet business for $3bn, reports say.

The sale of these patents, some dating back to Yahoo's initial public offering in 1996, came with a mid-June deadline for preliminary bids, reported the Wall St Journal, citing a source.

Boutique investment bank Black Stone IP has apparently been retained to run the auction.

Yahoo confirmed it was exploring the sale of about 3,000 patents and pending applications.

Meantime, the journal separately reported yesterday that Verizon's bid preparations were for a deal that included Yahoo's core search site, Yahoo Mail and the remainder of Yahoo! News.

It would apparently also scoop up an array of miscellaneous web services and products, such as Yahoo Answers and Yahoo Finance, the WSJ said, again citing a source.

The Yahoo network is the fifth most-visited website in the world. May 2016 traffic totalled 6.5bn monthly page views, the journal reported.