Yahoo returns US$3.65bn shareholder cash

Yahoo will return US$3.65bn to shareholders after the closing of their multibillion-dollar sale of half its assets in China's Alibaba Group.

New CEO Marissa Mayer made the announcement today, offering 85% of the deal's worth to company shareholder's with Yahoo keeping around $650m.

Alibaba completed the repurchase of shares from Yahoo worth $7.6bn, with Mayer continuing the feel good factor surrounding the company by making the pledge in a memo to employees.

“This outcome is terrific for Yahoo,” Mayer says.

“It generates liquidity to create substantial value for our shareholders, while retaining a meaningful amount in the company to invest in our future.

"Also, because we still own 23% of Alibaba’s common stock, we have the opportunity to benefit from future upside when Alibaba IPOs.”

Yahoo has yet to reveal whether they will return the money through buybacks or dividends, however.

“We haven’t announced specifics around the form of return of proceeds,” a Yahoo spokesperson told AllThingsD.

”The form and timing of returning proceeds will be determined by the board and management taking into consideration the best interests of the company and its shareholders.”

The news follows Mayer's decision to trade in employee BlackBerry devices in favour of a range of top quality smartphones.

As reported earlier on TechDay, Mayer made the call to ditch the Research In Motion made handset, offering all full-time and part-time workers a new list of phones to chose from, including the newly released iPhone 5, Samsung S3, HTC One X and Nokia Lumia 920.

The new Yahoo-implemented "Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun!" initiative also covers employees data and phone bills as Mayer continues her turnaround of the stricken company.