Marissa MayerREUTERS/Ruben SprichYahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
Yahoo's board will consider a potential sale of its internet business when it meets later this week, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing anonymous sources.
Yahoo shares are up roughly 7% at $36.09 in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
The discussion to sell Yahoo's core business comes as investors have grown increasingly impatient with CEO Marissa Mayer's efforts to revitalize the internet company, and as opposition mounts to Yahoo's plan to spin off a lucrative stake in its Asian investments.
The Yahoo board of directors will meet Wednesday through Friday to consider a variety of options, including whether to proceed with plans to spin off its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, whether to sell the core Yahoo internet business, or both, The WSJ said.
Among the potential buyers expected to take a look at Yahoo's business are private-equity shops, according to the report.
Activist shareholder Starboard wrote a letter to Yahoo last month urging it to halt its plan to spin off its 15% stake in Alibaba through a complex tax-free spinoff that Yahoo hopes to complete by January. Starboard said the risk of incurring taxes on the deal, especially after the IRS refused to bless the transaction ahead of time, was too great.
Instead, Starboard said Yahoo should sell its core internet search and ad business.
It's not clear what price Yahoo's core business could fetch, given that Wall Street currently gives it a value of less than zero. Yahoo's stake in Alibaba is worth roughly $32 billion, which exceeds Yahoo's $31.8 billion market cap.
Yahoo's online properties remain some of the most visited in the world, with hundreds of millions of monthly visitors. But the company remains far behind web rivals such as Google and Facebook in terms of user engagement and advertiser budgets.
Pressure is mounting on Mayer, a former Google executive, more than three years into a turnaround effort that has so far shown little progress. Yahoo's revenue remains stagnant and the company has failed to create any new mobile apps or services that have been big consumer hits.
A string of Yahoo executives have recently jumped ship, and Yahoo has reportedly hired consulting firm McKinsey and Co. to help craft a companywide reorganization. Mayer said in October that the company would "narrow" its focus and strategy going forward.
A Yahoo representative told Business Insider that it would not comment on the report.