• The New York Times, Tuesday, November 29, 2011 2:45 PM

Apparently, Yahoo’s board is doing everything it can to prevent selling the company as a whole. Rather, it’s reportedly taking offers for a minority stake in the struggling Web giant. As sources tell The New York Times, a consortium of investors led by private equity firm Silver Lake and Microsoft is one of several parties interested in such an arrangement. Yahoo’s financial advisers at Allen & Company and Goldman Sachs set the end of business on Monday as a deadline for offers for a minority stake in company, The Times reports, citing sources. Meanwhile, TPG Capital, another private equity firm, is also expected to submit a proposal. “Both plans involve taking as much as a 20 percent stake in Yahoo,” The Times writes.

Yahoo would then likely take on debt to finance a stock buyback. “Coupled with the roughly 10 percent stake that is held by Yahoo’s co-founders, Jerry Yangand David Filo, the maneuver would effectively give the winning investor group a majority holding,” The Times explains. All that said, however, Yahoo’s board may still consider bids for the entire company, The Times adds, citing another source.

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