• Dealbook, Tuesday, December 14, 2010 1:18 PM

DealBook's Andrew Ross Sorkin spends some time with Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of Softbank, and, in his opinion, the "one person who holds the key to the future" of Yahoo. As Sorkin notes, Softbank owns big chunks of Yahoo's most valuable investment stakes, including Yahoo Japan and the Alibaba Group -- one of China's largest Internet companies. Analysts estimate that those assets, combined with Yahoo's cash, represent more than half of Yahoo's $22 billion value.

"With all the speculation about Yahoo's future -- Will it be broken up? Will it be taken private? Will it merge with AOL? -- virtually every situation contemplated begins and ends with Yahoo selling its Asian crown jewels," Sorkin writes. "And that is where Son comes in, perhaps on either side of a deal." Regarding Yahoo's embattled CEO Carol Bartz and her plans for the future, Son would only say: "She has to make a hard decision."

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