Saturday, May 10, 2014

Yahoo! A puzzle, a mystery and an enigma

In my last post, I estimated Alibaba's value and concluded that its growth and profitability put it on a pathway to make it one of the most valuable IPOs in history. In this post, which I view as a companion, I am looking at Yahoo, a company that has effectively become a proxy for Alibaba, especially leading up to the initial public offering. To illustrate, Yahoo’s quarterly earnings came out on April 15, and it reported flat revenues and declining earnings. Bad news, right? However, its stock price jumped on the earnings report, as embedded in it was good news about Alibaba's revenue growth in the last quarter of 2013. In fact, in the context of valuing Yahoo! in my valuation class, I borrowed phraseology from Winston Churchill and described Yahoo! as a puzzle, coupled with a mystery and wrapped up in an enigma. Yahoo!, the parent company, is the puzzle (especially in how quickly it lost its dominance in the United States, and why), with a mystery (its 35% stake in Yahoo! Japan, which is prospering while the parent struggles) and an enigma (the 22.1% share of Alibaba). 
Note: Press stories estimate Yahoo's holdings at 22.6% or 24%, depending on whether you use diluted or primary shares. I used the 523.6 million shares that Yahoo owns in Alibaba and my estimate of 2368.67 million shares outstanding in Alibaba, including restricted stock units, in Alibaba to arrive at 22.1%.

Setting up the valuation
To value shares in Yahoo, you have to estimate the value of its US operations, but that is only a small piece of the overall value, since Yahoo owns 35% of Yahoo Japan and 22.1% of Alibaba. Neither holding is consolidated, and the way in which the accounting works effectively means that the key operating numbers that you see in Yahoo’s financial statements (revenues, operating income) will not reflect either of these holdings. To illustrate the tangled web of values, here are the steps to get to the value of equity in Yahoo:

Yahoo: The sum of the parts
Thus, to value equity in Yahoo, you have to value Yahoo, Yahoo Japan and Alibaba separately, and after aggregating your holdings in each company's equity (100% of Yahoo, 35% of Yahoo Japan and 22.1% of Alibaba), you also have to net out any taxes that will come due on capital gains if Yahoo plans to or is required to sell any of its holdings. In the case of Alibaba, it has no choice, at least on a part of the holding, since it will be required as part of a prior agreement to sell 208 million shares after the IPO

If you are interested in Yahoo as an investment, there are three ways in which you can approach the analysis.
  1. You can estimate an intrinsic value for each of the three pieces and add them together to come up with a composite intrinsic value. Now that Alibaba has filed its prospectus, you have the financial statements for all three companies.
  2. You can price each of the three pieces, by looking at a key metric (revenues, earnings, book value) and applying a multiple to it, based on how other companies like it (and that is a subjective call) are being priced in the market. 
  3. You can cheat and use the market pricing of one or more pieces to see how much you are paying for the rest of the company. In other words, you can check to see if the market is being internally consistent in its pricing of the pieces.
The Puzzle: Yahoo and its fall from dominance
I started with the parent company, a pioneer in the online search/advertising business that has long since been pushed to the sidelines by Google. Revenues have been declining at Yahoo! (US) over the last few years, going from $7.2 billion in 2008 to $4.68 billion in 2013 and the contrast with Google over the last decade is striking:

Yahoo versus Google: No mas!
The much heralded ascension of Marissa Mayer to the top of the company has not resulted in a turnaround in revenues, though the company continued to be profitable, generating $590 million in 2013 (translating into a pre-tax operating margin of 12.6%). If there was any positive news about Yahoo! in its most recent report, it is that ad revenues have stopped falling and that they increased 1.7% over the same quarter in the last year, though total revenues declined slightly and operating income dropped; the company generated $422 million in operating income on revenues of $4672 million in the twelve months ending March 31, 2014.
Intrinsic valuation: Assuming that Yahoo! will return to dominance or even get back to moderate growth is a reach. I will, however, assume that Ms. Mayer will find a way to stop the bleeding and that the company will muddle along as a mature company with stagnant revenues and stable margins. I assume a nominal growth rate of 1% for the next 5 years for Yahoo!, increasing to 2.75% in year 10, I estimate a value of $4.38 billion for its operating assets, but adding its substantial cash balance of $4.6 billion and netting out its debt of $1.6 billion, I derive a value of equity of $7.37 billion for the parent company.  You can download the parent company valuation by clicking here. (I used the last 10K filed by Yahoo and updated the numbers using the most recent 10Q).
A relative valuation (pricing): You can anchor your relative valuation of Yahoo! to revenues, EBITDA or operating income. Perhaps, the simplest way to do this would be to apply the median EV/Sales or EV/EBITDA  multiple for the sector (internet software and services) to Yahoo's metrics to estimate a value for just the parent company's operating assets. 
Yahoo: Estimated Enterprise Value using Median Multiples from Internet software & services
While it is tempting to apply these median multiples in the sector in internet software & services business to Yahoo’s revenues, you will get absurdly high values, since most of the companies in this sector are expected to have high revenue growth in the future,  and Yahoo! has little or no expected growth. In particular, we would expect Yahoo to trade at a much lower revenue multiple than its competitors. To get an adjusted revenue growth, we plotted EV/Sales against revenue growth for all internet stocks in the chart below:

EV/Sales versus Expected revenue growth: Internet software & services
There are outliers in this relationship, with higher revenue growth companies trade at higher multiples of revenues. (Twitter is one of the outliers in the graph, but this graph was prepared before Twitter's fall from grace last week. It is not as much of an outlier any more.)  In fact, the best fit line yields the following (and you can download the raw data used for the regression here):
EV/Sales = -0.94 + 21.21(Expected revenue growth) + 15.06 (Operating Margin)
R squared = 54.5%
Given Yahoo's expected revenue growth rate of 1% and current operating margin of 9.02%, we would forecast an EV/Sales ratio of only 0,63 for Yahoo .
EV/Sales Yahoo = -0.94 + 21.21(.01) + 15.06 (.0902) = 0.63
Applying this multiple to Yahoo’s revenues ($4.672 billion) yields $2,948 billion for Yahoo’s enterprise value, and adding the cash balance ($4.6 billion) and subtracting out debt (1.6 billion) yields a value of equity of $5.9 billion. Note that this is the value of only the parent company, since the revenues from the cross holdings (Yahoo Japan and Alibaba) are not incorporated into Yahoo’s revenues.)
Market price: Given the stock price of $33.76 at the time of this post, we have a market capitalization of $34.8 billion for Yahoo in May 2014, but that reflects the market’s assessment of the value of equity in the company with its cross holdings.

The Mystery: Yahoo! Japan
While Yahoo! has struggled in the US market, Yahoo! Japan has had more success in the Japanese market, as evidenced in the graph below:
Yahoo! Japan - Historical Performance
While there was a slowdown in 2012 and 2013, the company has been able to post a compounded annual growth rate of 22% in revenues and earnings in the last decade.
Intrinsic valuation: Estimating an intrinsic value for Yahoo! Japan, with a 5% growth rate in revenues for the next 5 years and much higher operating margin (40%) than Yahoo, yields an intrinsic value of $17.9 billion for the operating assets and $21 billion for its equity. You can download the valuation of Yahoo Japan by clicking here.
Relative valuation/pricing: Using the same regression on online companies that I used to value the parent company, I estimate an EV/Sales multiple of 7.91 for Yahoo! Japan, based on its expected revenue growth of 5% and operating margin of 51.72%.
EV/Sales Yahoo Japan = -0.94 + 21.21(.05) + 15.06 (.5172) = 7.91
Applying this multiple to the revenues of $3,929 million in 2013, we estimate a value of $31.1 billion for Yahoo! Japan’s operating assets. Adding cash and subtracting debt yields a value of equity of $34.2 billion for Yahoo! Japan.
Pricing: Yahoo! Japan is a stand alone and publicly traded entity, with a market capitalization of $23.2 billion in May 2014.

The Enigma: Alibaba
The final piece of the valuation is Alibaba, in whom Yahoo! has a 22.1% stake. Until last week, we were valuing Alibaba primarily through the financials that Yahoo was reporting for the company, since it was private and unlisted. With the prospectus now in the public domain, we can be more specific in both the intrinsic and relative valuations of the company.
Intrinsic value: Rather than rehash the intrinsic valuation of Alibaba, I will direct you to my last post, where I valued Alibaba's equity at $145 billion, post IPO. That valuation is built on the assumptions of revenue growth slowing to 25% (on an annual, compounded basis over the next 5 years) and a target operating margin of 40% (below the current operating margin of 50%). You can download the Alibaba IPO valuation spreadsheet by clicking here.
Relative valuation/Pricing: The second is to use the revenue and net income numbers, in conjunction with estimates multiples obtained by looking at other companies in the business and adjusting for Alibaba’s higher growth and profit margins. The table below lists PE and Price to Sales (which is a inconsistent multiple, but one we are stuck with since we have no debt and cash numbers) for sectors that may or may not match Alibaba’s business model:
Median Multiples: Advertising, Retail and Online Retail
The range of values that you obtain, using these multiples for Yahoo!, is immense, from a low of $6 billion (using EV/Sales of general retail) to a high of $285.6 billion (using a PE ratio of US online retailers). The bankers will undoubtedly gravitate towards earnings-based multiples and samples of internet firms as comparable firms during their roadshow. Using the EV/Sales regression that I used to value Yahoo! and Yahoo! Japan, with an expected revenue growth of 27% (from valuation) and operating margin of 49.07%:
EV/Sales Alibaba = -0.94 + 21.21(.27) + 15.06 (.4907) = 12.18
Applied to Alibaba's revenues of $7,911 million in 2013, adding the value of cash, cross holdings in Weibo & other online ventures and expected IPO proceeds of $27,963 million and netting out debt ($6,670 million) yields a value for Alibaba's equity of $117,623 million.
I would not be surprised if Baidu, the only other large, publicly traded Chinese online company that is structured similarly to Alibaba (as a Variable Interest Entity) is used for comparison and its pricing ratios are applied to Alibaba's metrics to arrive at value.
Baidu Multiples Applied to Alibaba; Enterprise values adjusted for cash, cross holdings and debt
On second thoughts, given how low these values are, relative to the rumored IPO numbers, it is entirely possible that bankers will avoid talking about Baidu as much as they can, since it will not fit their pricing story. 
Pricing: Alibaba is not a publicly traded company yet, but there is no shortage of estimates of how much the company will be valued at after its IPO. The rumored IPO estimates of equity value (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-05/alibaba-s-average-valuation-rises-to-153-billion-after-earnings.html) range from $150 to $200 billion.

The Bottom line
At this stage, we have three paths we can follow to estimate the value per share in Yahoo, which entitles you to a full share in the parent, 35% of the equity of Yahoo! Japan and 22.1% of the equity in Alibaba. In each case, I have netted out the taxes that Yahoo will have coming due on the 208 million shares of Alibaba that it will have to sell. Pulling together the numbers for all the valuation/pricing of the individual companies, here is where we stand:
1. All intrinsic value: Using the intrinsic value estimates that we have for the three companies in the mix, we can estimate an intrinsic value per share for Yahoo:


The taxes were computed based on the capital gains, the difference between the assessed equity value for Alibaba and the book value (from Yahoo's 10K) for these shares. Using intrinsic value estimates for all three companies, the value per share is $41.19, making it under valued by 18%, relative to the prevailing price per share ($33.76).
2. All relative value: Using the relative value estimates that we have for Yahoo, Yahoo Japan and Alibaba, we derive a relative value per share for Yahoo:


On a relative value basis, the value per share is $39.19, making it under valued by 14% at its current price.
3. Pricing break-even: There is a third twist that can be used to value Yahoo's equity. You can use the market pricing of Yahoo Japan and Alibaba to back out the value that the market is attaching to the parent company's operating assets. Since Alibaba is not public yet, this will require use of the estimated IPO value numbers (I will use $150 billion for the base case), but once Alibaba becomes a public company, the pricing will be the market value.

Using the expected IPO value of equity of $150 billion, the conclusion you arrive at is that the market must be attaching a negative value to the parent company's operating assets. To the extent that this may just reflect the possibility that we are misplacing the Alibaba IPO, I estimated the value of Yahoo operating assets as a function of the value of Alibaba equity after the IPO.
Imputed value versus Intrinsic value
The results here are consistent with both the intrinsic and relative value assessments. Unless the Alibaba post-IPO equity value is less than $104 billion, it looks like Yahoo is mispriced, relative to how its holdings are being priced. 

What next?
While I remain concerned about the overall valuation of companies in the sector, Yahoo seems mispriced on every basis, intrinsic, relative and market pricing. I am aware that there are risks (as with any investment) and there are three concerns that I have:
  1. Cross holding complexity: Yahoo is a case study in why valuation becomes difficult in the presence of cross holdings. In particular, the accounting for cross holdings, though it has its own internal logic, creates inconsistencies across financial statements that both confuse and trip up investors. In the case of Yahoo, the cross holdings in Yahoo Japan and Alibaba are recorded using the equity approach. The net result of the accounting is that the operating numbers for Yahoo (revenues, EBITDA and operating income) reflect nothing from these holdings whereas the net income and book value of equity do reflect the cross holdings . So what? For those investors who are dependent upon enterprise value multiples (EV/EBITDA or EV/Sales), applying either of these multiples to Yahoo numbers, adding cash and subtracting debt, i.e., following conventional practice, will yield a value of equity far lower than the market capitalization of the company because you are effectively attaching no value to its cross holdings. It is true that you may be able to use net income as your base, since it includes the income from the cross holdings, and apply a PE ratio to it, but that PE ratio will have to reflect the composite expectations across three companies (Yahoo, Yahoo Japan and Alibaba) on growth and risk.
  2. The tax bite may get larger: I have assumed the minimum tax bite in my valuations, since it really makes no sense for Yahoo to liquidate its cross holdings now, unless it is forced to, as it is in the case of the 9% of Alibaba that it has to sell. It does not need the cash, its investors should get the pass-through value and it certainly does not want to pay the tax bill early. There are two scenarios, though, where this assumption may break down. First, if the market prices for Yahoo Japan and Alibaba skyrocket and Yahoo's price does not, the gap that we highlighted in the last section may get bigger. In fact, if it gets big enough, Yahoo may be forced to monetize the gap, i.e., sell its holdings in Yahoo Japan and Alibaba, pay the taxes, and still have money left over for its stockholders. The second relates to Yahoo's relationship with Alibaba. It is possible that Alibaba may be uncomfortable with Yahoo's continued large stock ownership and find a way, legal or extralegal, to get Yahoo to sell. 
  3. The "do something quickly" discount: There is a bias both among analysts and financial journalists towards CEO action over inaction, towards quick action over more deliberate choices and towards growth over retrenchment. Leading into the Alibaba IPO, there has been a drumbeat of articles like this one, this one and this one that are full of advice for Ms. Mayer about what she should do with the cash windfall that Yahoo will have after the IPO. Most of these articles suggest ways in which Ms. Mayer can use the cash to return Yahoo to its glory days. I think that Yahoo has lost the fight to Google and should concede gracefully. Rather than throw good money after bad, my suggestion is that Yahoo do the following: (a) concede that growth in its core business will be too expensive to go after, cut back on growth investments and run itself as a mature business (essentially what I have assumed in the intrinsic valuation), (b) work on making the performance and the pricing of its cross holdings more transparent to investors and (c) return the excess cash to investors. The upside of doing this will be that the gap between price and break up value may shrink, benefiting stockholders. The downside is that Ms. Mayer loses a chance (albeit one with low odds) to go down in history as the CEO who brought Yahoo back from the dead.
The cross holdings and the confusion they breed among investors it both an ally and a hindrance, an ally because it is one reason why the stock (in my view) is mispriced and a hindrance because it may take a while for the mispricing to become evident. Alibaba's IPO may seem an obvious catalyst but market corrections don't always follow the logical path. The tax issue is a nagging problem, but the company seems cognizant of the tax overhang and negotiated with Alibaba to reduce the number of shares that it would have to sell after the IPO. Finally, Ms. Mayer seems to be saying all the right things, talking about how how she plans to be a "good steward of capital", but talk is cheap and the pressure to go for bigger and better will be difficult to resist. On balance, none of these risks is enough of a deal breaker for me. Not only is there a gap between price and value with Yahoo but there is one between price (that the market is attaching to Yahoo) and price (that the market is attaching to Yahoo! Japan and Alibaba) and as a newly minted Yahoo stockholder, I am hoping that one or the other of these gaps will close.

Yahoo! Equity Valuation: Master spreadsheet (is linked to individual company valuations below)

35 comments:

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Dheeraj said...

Thanks for this wonderful valuation post. I think the best bet that Yahoo has is the success of Alibaba IPO.

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top down view said...

Hi Professor,

Would you need to discount Yahoo's remaining equity stake in Alibaba (that they are not forced to sell) by the capital gains tax rate that they would inevitably have to pay one day?

Thank you

Zach

Kerrie Peacock said...

I was just looking at Yahoo and was wondering about this, thanks for the explanation!

Anonymous said...

Mr. Damodaran,

Thanks for the detailed valuation of Yahoo. Was just wondering what would happen if Ms. Mayer goes on a buying spree just like the rumored "buyout" of Blink (snapchat rival)? Can we expect future updates on this topic?

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Farooq Javed said...

Professor Damodaran, what's your source for the data (particularly the revenue projections) in Yahoorawdata.xls?

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I Blackstone said...

Do agree to your valuation and mine is between $45 and $47.

Noisy newsflows around Alibaba IPO (use of cash etc) and the slowed user growth at Tumblr after acquired are I think the major points that most of beauty voting traders/investors are concerned about.

Ian said...

Hopefully Ms Mayer will listen to your advice and work to bridge the gap between price and value using your suggestions.(i.e. by bringing the price up and not vice versa!!). Perhaps some activist investors may step in to do this once the Alibaba IPO gets priced up.

Anonymous said...

Hi Professor,
Was just looking at the Yahoo Japan FY 2013 report. This shows a 12% increase in yearly revenue growth whereas in your valuation spreadsheet, you have negative 5%. Can you pl clarify? Also, did you use the current exchange rate to convert in to USD?

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your articles and lectures.

Anonymous said...

Hi Prof, did you run a simulation to determine the probability of Yahoo being undervalued as you did with Apple? Thx.

Mahesh said...

Yahoo sells 208 Million Shares after AliBaba's IPO. This gives them a serious amount of Cash. I think Ms. Mayer should use this to fund acquisitions and integrate these acquisitions with Yahoo!. Yahoo! has tremendous brand vale (even now). Though investors are looking at getting something back, this would only be for a short term. Yahoo! will have to identify potential acquisitions NOW. And your suggestion of running it as a mature business does not go well. Today, even a 100 year old company is in a start-up mode.

Subbu said...

Why have you added IPO proceeds to the equity value of Ali Baba? Shouldn't you then increase the number of share outstanding to include potential IPO shares as well? Isn't it a mistake to adjust cash by IPO proceeds but not that outstanding shares? I would like your opinion on how IPO and in general fund raising (venture cap etc) affect enterprise value.

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Anonymous said...

The links to the Excel files are not working... (get the Error page from NYUStern) Could you please fix it, Mr Damodaran? Many thanks

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Anonymous said...

Professor

Request you to please do a webcast on Risk management. the reason I am asking you because I have referred certain books on Risk management & I certainly feel that this space is dominated by the quants guys.I have nothing against them but the way risk management is approached their is so little of Finance

your view will be a great help

thak you

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PENNY STOCK INVESTMENTS said...

Yahoo can never seem to get on track Yahoo finance is worse now than before. Theirs not a lot of great material on yahoo in general.

Unknown said...

Dear Professor,
I read through your analysis. But if your numbers are correct I would say that is a less risky strategy to buy a yahoo Japan share. There you have a single entity with growth where the misprice is significant:

Applying this multiple to the revenues of $3,929 million in 2013, we estimate a value of $31.1 billion for Yahoo! Japan’s operating assets. Adding cash and subtracting debt yields a value of equity of $34.2 billion for Yahoo! Japan.
Pricing: Yahoo! Japan is a stand alone and publicly traded entity, with a market capitalization of $23.2 billion in May 2014.

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Lyall Taylor said...

Interesting analysis.

One issue I might flag though is that Yahoo is liable for taxes on inter-company dividends is it not?

This means there is a disadvantage to the holding company structure vs. buying the stocks directly for Yahoo shareholders.

This is one reason why holding companies often trade at discounts to their NAVs. I've often in my valuation work taken the marginal tax rate on dividends x average expected payout ratio as being a justified discount to NAV due to the presence of a holding company structure.

So applied, that might account for some of the observed undervaluation you mention?

Cheers,
Lyall Taylor

Barrett said...

With regards to the tax, there is a potential for a cash rich split similar to the type recently manoeuvred by The Sage. Alibaba could also buy all of YHOO after the IPO (using the new cash) to unlock value, also avoiding taxes by cancelling the stock, and swapping Yahoo Japan for Softbank's BABA share. The old YHOO would then conceivably be sold to either PE or more likely imho to MSFT, especially considering Nardella's recent reluctance to outline his plan for the online business, which continues to gain market traction but bleed cash. This transaction will surely prove to be very interesting in many ways as a special situation investment

Roby La Mura said...

Professor, thank you very much for sharing the process and the worksheet!

Richard Lewis said...

Dear Professor,

When you calculate the Cost of Capital of Yahoo's core business, you used Yahoo’s market cap to determine it’s leverage. I wonder if this might considerably understate the use of leverage by Yahoo’s core business considering its market cap includes its large stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. Do you believe it might be possible or beneficial to subtract out the Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stakes from Yahoo’s market cap in this calculation? Especially now that they both trade publicly.

Thank you,
Richard Lewis

ayuana said...

When you calculate the Cost of Capital of Yahoo's core business, you used Yahoo’s market cap to determine it’s leverage. I wonder if this might considerably understate the use of leverage by Yahoo’s core business considering its market cap includes its large stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. Do you believe it might be possible or beneficial to subtract out the Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stakes from Yahoo’s market cap in this calculation? Especially now that they both trade publicly.