Yahoo Shares Steady After Surge On Alibaba Windfall

Shares of Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), the No. 3 search engine, rose only slightly Wednesday after rising more than 1 percent Tuesday after announcing plans to return $3 billion to shareholders by divesting half its stake in China’s Alibaba Group.

In early trading, Yahoo shares rose 6 cents to $15.96, bringing the value of the Sunnyvale, Calif., company to nearly $19 billion. Yahoo, though, didn’t announce how it will return the money, either via a special dividend or by buying back shares.

The move comes slightly over a year after CEO Carol Bartz was fired and New York hedge fund Third Point Capital started to acquire its 5.8 percent stake in the company, which led to its obtaining three seats on the board of directors and the ouster of interim CEO Scott Thompson in May.

New CEO Marissa Mayer said she was still reviewing company operations, which also include potential firings of as many as 2,000 employees.