Quicken Loans Inc. founder Dan Gilbert and Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett are among a consortium of investors vying for Yahoo’s Internet assets, according to a report late Friday by Reuters.
The group of investors is in the second round of bidding in the auction for Yahoo’s assets, according to both Reuters and Bloomberg News. Neither news organization named their sources because details of the sale process are supposed to be confidential.
Three representatives for Gilbert and his businesses did not immediately return phone calls and e-mails to the Free Press on Friday night. Gilbert did not respond to a message via Twitter.
Yahoo, founded in 1994 by two Stanford PhD candidates, Jerry Yang and David Filo, is a digital media company and the third-largest search engine, according to Search Engine Land. However, its users have been declining and its revenues dropped to less than $1 billion for 2015 for the first time in four years, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this year, Yahoo announced plans to cut about 15 percent of its workforce as part of a $400-million cost-cutting effort meant to simplify its operations.
There are several groups of bidders vying for properties of Yahoo, which is led by Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer. Verizon is considered the front-runner in the auction process, now in its second round.
Yahoo was not immediately available for comment.
Gilbert and legendary investor Buffett have teamed up before.
In 2014, Quicken Loans and Berkshire Hathaway joined forces to offer a $1-billion prize to anyone who could achieve a perfect bracket for every single game the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament.
Nobody who participated managed to meet the challenge.
If Gilbert became part-owner of Yahoo, it would not be his first media company.
In 2014, private equity firm Rockbridge Growth Equity, co-founded by Gilbert, bought the Robb Report, a magazine for ultra-luxury lifestyle goods aimed at wealthy subscribers.
Gilbert is founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, the nation’s third-largest mortgage lender. He is also founder and chairman of Rock Ventures, an umbrella entity for a portfolio of business and real estate investments and is the majority owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. Gilbert and his companies own more than 80 buildings in downtown Detroit.
Gilbert also founded Rock Gaming, a developer and owner of casinos in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Baltimore. In 2013, the company also acquired Detroit’s Greektown Casino-Hotel.
