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Did Yahoo miss a trick in Alibaba sale? It was 'unfortunate' says CFO

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By Noel Young, Correspondent

May 15, 2013 | 3 min read

Yahoo may have jumped too soon last year in selling half of its 40 percent stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Group .

Did Yahoo jump too soon on Alibaba?

It was "unfortunate", the company CFO Ken Goldman told the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom conference in Boston - and a result of Yahoo's unstable situation at the time.

The deal had been agreed before Marissa Mayer took over as CEO last July. Yahoo shares are up roughly 70 percent since then , much of the rise due to stock buybacks and the growing value of Yahoo's Asian assets.

Now the company is looking at its 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, and the options include working with the company more closely.

Meantime Yahoo is going for a younger market seeking to move away from an "aging demographic" and become more relevant among young adults, said Goldman.

As part of that ,Yahoo will be more visible on outdoor billboards and at sporting events, among other places, as it aims to win over 18-to-34-year-olds .

"Part of it is going to be just visibility again in making ourselves cool, which we got away from for a couple of years," said Goldman.

Advertising will rise across various mediums but he gave no clue as to how much.

For years Yahoo has been losing ground on its website , as social networking and mobile websites such as Facebook and Twitter have soared along with Google.

"One of our challenges is we have had an aging demographic, if you will," said Goldman.

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, one of Google's earliest employees , has launched new versions of key products, such as Yahoo's Web email and its Flickr photo sharing service and since taking over.

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