Yahoo to spin off Alibaba stake

In the fourth quarter of this year, Yahoo will spin off the company's remaining 15% stake in Alibaba Group tax-free into a newly formed investment company SpinCo.A separate publicly traded company, SpinCo's stock will be distributed pro rata to Yahoo shareholders.SpinCo will own all of Yahoo's remaining 384 million shares of Alibaba, valued at $40 billion based on its closing share price yesterday in the US.Following the spin-off, Yahoo will continue to operate its core business and hold a 35.5% stake in Yahoo Japan.Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, said in a written statement, "Post-spin, using the closing price for Alibaba as of January 26, we will have returned nearly US$50 billion dollars of value to our shareholders. This level of capital return is historic, especially for a company of our size."