Yahoo Shopping Ad Platforms to Google, Microsoft to Stem Layoffs

In an effort to minimize the impact of massive layoffs that Yahoo's top management is planning, one of the latest ideas to save costs and presumably jobs by new CEO Scott Thompson is to sell off much of its advertising technology platform, including Right Media, sources close to the situation said Wednesday.

The possible buyers Thompson has targeted in recent visits include Google and Microsoft, as well as Silver Lake, the private equity firm that previously held talks about a large investment in the Silicon Valley internet giant.

The concept behind such a sale, according to several sources inside and outside the company, is to turn a cost center into a revenue source, with Yahoo essentially outsourcing a business that was once a cornerstone of its strategy. A negotiable number of employees affiliated with those units would then move over to the new owner.

The most ideal plan, sources said, would be to sell Yahoo's whole advertising technology "stack," including the Right Media Exchange, a marketplace for advertisers, publishers and ad networks to trade online ads.

Yahoo bought Right Media for $700 million in 2007. According to the company's website, it has "300,000 active global buyers and sellers and more than 11 billion daily transactions."

Also part of the possible package is APT, a system Yahoo built to make buying and selling online advertising easier.

Another area under review is Yahoo's search advertising partnership with Microsoft, which has not been as successful as it hoped.