Search engine giant Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) has lined up bids for about 3,000 patents, writes the Wall Street Journal today.
It has hired boutique investment bank Black Stone IP LLC to sell about 3,000 of the internet company's patents, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company has sent letters to a number of potential buyers for the patents, which date back to when the company was founded in 1996 and also include its original search technology, the report said.
The deadline for bids for the patents has been set for mid-June.
It was one of several hot business stories on Wednesday.
Also across various media outlets was news that Société Générale suffered humiliation yesterday when a court ruled that the bank had unfairly dismissed Jérôme Kerviel, the rogue trader who ran up losses of nearly €5bn.
Société Générale was ordered to pay trader $511,000; French court says bank ‘could not pretend it hadn’t long been aware of the unauthorized trades’, writes the WSJ.
The continued rise of Hilary Clinton as Democratic candidate for the White House race is of course a big topic.
Reported by the WSJ, she declared victory last night in the Democratic presidential primary race, emerging from a bruising battle as the first woman within striking distance of the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, one for motorists, and US gasoline consumption is set to climb to a record this summer as the lowest pump prices in more than a decade encourage Americans to take to the roads, says Bloomberg.
Demand, which typically peaks between the Memorial Day holiday in late May and Labor Day in early September, will average a record 9.5 million barrels during the second and third quarters, up from 9.48 million forecast in May, the Energy Information Administration said in its monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook released Tuesday.
For the first time in 20 years, Disney officials have submitted plans to the city of Anaheim to build a new luxury hotel, says the LA Times.
The project, which would be the fourth hotel at the Disneyland resort, is slated for a 10-acre parking lot on the west end of Disney’s property.
The proposed hotel would take advantage of a city incentive program that allows any four-star or four-diamond hotel to keep 70% of the bed taxes for 20 years. The tax represents 15% of the nightly rate, the paper says.
Also in the news, The World Bank slashed its 2016 global growth forecast on Wednesday to 2.4% from the 2.9% estimated in January due to stubbornly low commodity prices, sluggish demand in advanced economies, weak trade and diminishing capital flows.
Commodity-exporting emerging market countries have struggled to adapt to lower prices for oil, metals, and other commodities, accounting for half of the downward revision, the multilateral lender said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report.