Is a Yahoo Buyout in the Works?

Two top Yahoo (YHOO) shareholders are pressing AOL (AOL) chief executive Tim Armstrong to consider buying out and taking over the search provider, in yet another public display of dissatisfaction with boss Marissa Mayer’s leadership, according to a Reuters report.

The unidentified Yahoo shareholders reportedly have approached Armstrong, who apparently has listened to them about the possible advantages of such a deal, Reuters reported. Armstrong is said only to be interested in a friendly, not hostile, takeover, were talks to begin—which, it should be noted, haven’t, and in all likelihood, won’t.

Still, the shareholders’ obvious discontent with Mayer is the latest high-profile expression of discord with her performance, starting with Eric Jackson, founder and managing partner of hedge fund Ironfire Capital and a small Yahoo stakeholder, blistering her in a Forbes article for everything from the disastrous Henrique De Castro ad sales hire to an increased headcount, poor M&A decisions, deteriorating core business and excessive stock compensation.

That was followed by activist investor Starboard’s open letter deriding some of her executive decision-making, in which she was urged to sell Yahoo’s stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, cut costs by $250 million to $500 million per year, stop buying non-revenue contributing startups and merge with AOL, as BusinessInsider recounted.

Those investors urging Mayer to scale back Yahoo’s M&A activity may have more reason to grumble with her $640 million acquisition of video advertising technology provider BrightRoll earlier this week. But BrightRoll will bring $100 million in sales to the party, platform and publisher relationships and an upgrade in ad technology.

At this point, Yahoo’s market value stands at about $47 billion, with its stake in Alibaba worth some $44 million, not exactly a ringing endorsement of the company’s core businesses.

Much of the grousing about Mayer surrounds key issues such as Yahoo’s stagnant ad revenue and the sense that she seems to be floundering without a distinct strategy and plan for how to move the company forward.

On the other hand, as BusinessInsider points out, Mayer has tripled the value of Yahoo stock since taking the helm in 2012 (although her critics say that has more to do with the appreciation of the company’s Asian stock rather than anything else) and “she’s made a completely irrelevant company at least somewhat relevant in the technology industry. She’s infused some life into Yahoo.”

In coming to Mayer’s defense, BusinessInsider called attention to Mayer’s response to her critics on Yahoo’s most recent earnings call, in which she pointed out that she’s got tax experts advising her on maximizing the company’s Alibaba stake, Yahoo has spent $7.7 in share buybacks and only $1.6 billion on acquisitions since she took over, boosted native advertising, increased mobile ad sales and slimmed the ranks somewhat.

No matter the criticisms, if Yahoo were to dump Mayer, who and what’s next for the company whose brand she, in fact, has resuscitated in the last two years?