Report: Yahoo to Be Broken Up, Sold for Parts?

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If you’ve been wondering who’s going to replace Carol Bartz as CEO of Yahoo after she was fired by phone at the beginning of the month, the answer may be “no one.”

In fact, following on from rumors that Yahoo was “open to selling itself to the right bidder,” now there are rumors that the company may be broken down and sold off in pieces to whoever is interested.

(MORE: Report: Yahoo ‘Open to Selling Itself to the Right Bidder)

According to Business Insider’s Henry Blodget, instead of hiring a firm to start looking for a new CEO, various Yahoo-related parties are quietly reaching out to companies to see if there’s interest in buying parts of the company. Mentioning two anonymous inside sources, Blodget says that “Yahoo is asking what Yahoo assets the companies might be interested in and what they might be willing to pay for them.”

Companies mentioned as potential buyers include Microsoft, News Corp., Disney and online advertising giant Glam Media. This comes in addition, of course, to rumors of an AOL/Yahoo merger, as well as three private equity firms expressing interest in purchasing the company.

Yahoo may be buying time until someone comes along with a good idea about what to do with the company and its assets. But whether or not such lack of leadership is going to make the company look less valuable in the short-term to possible buyers is open to question.

MORE: Here We Go: AOL and Yahoo May Be Talking Merger

Graeme McMillan is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @Graemem or on Facebook at Facebook/Graeme.McMillan. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.