Private equity firms Blackstone Group and Bain Capital will lead a bid for the whole of Yahoo Inc after agreeing to team up with Alibaba Group, two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The two buyout houses are eager to acquire Yahoo's core U.S. operations, one of these people said, adding that the composition of the consortium, which will also involve Japan's Softbank Corp, has not yet been formalized.

Alibaba and Blackstone declined to comment, while a Bain spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Nadia Damouni, Greg Roumeliotis and Soyoung Kim in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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