Peter & Don, these bits from the Softbank/GeoCities stories spell it out (not clearly, but its there):
SOFTBANK is purchasing its GeoCities shares valued at approximately $51 million through a combination of Yahoo! common stock, and cash proceeds from the sale of certain shares of Yahoo! common stock in the open market.
Of the total investment, $25 million will be made directly in GeoCities. The balance will be used to purchase existing shares from current GeoCities shareholders.
... and that Yahoo! will purchase $5 million in equity of GeoCities to be paid for with newly issued common stock.
Softbank will transfer/invest $25mm worth of YHOO (or proceeds of sales of YHOO or a combination) to GeoCities. Yahoo! will transfer $5mm worth of YHOO to GeoCities. In addition, Softbank will transfer another $25mm worth of YHOO to existing GeoCities shareholders in exchange for GeoCities shares (or sell and use the proceeds to buy shares of GeoCities from existing shareholders).
In any case (whoever gets YHOO shares or cash proceeds of shares), $56mm worth of YHOO, or about 850m shares at $66 (the stories came out before today's loss), is hitting the street. Some may have been sold already (we'll know if 144s are filed), but all will likely be sold (assuming that GeoCities actually needs cash) very soon.
Yahoo! will file "early this month" with the SEC to register these shares, thereby allowing GeoCities and/or its shareholders to sell the YHOO shares without any pesky Rule 144 limitations. What's more, GeoCities/its shareholders won't have to file anything before or after they sell. It's not restricted stock once the registration statement is final and they are not "insiders".
Combine this with the Four11 shares (which are also registered and freely saleable), and you've got 2.3-2.4mm shares to supply whatever Fools are still buying this thing.
Bob
PS: Maybe those getting YHOO instead of cash were the ones writing all those calls, ya' think? |
