As Yahoo Turns: What's next in its decade-long soap opera?

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo has starred in a decade-long soap opera during which it's run through five CEOs, fended off a hostile takeover bid from Microsoft and sparred (often unsuccessfully) with activist investors who muscled their way on to the Internet company's board.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wants to buy more time for the turnaround she promised after the Sunnyvale, California, company lured her away from Google three-and-half years ago.

Some unsubstantiated reports suggest that Yahoo plans to unveil a digital assistant to compete against Apple's Siri, Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana.

In an apparent attempt to placate Wall Street, Mayer plans to jettison an unspecified number of services that have either been losing money or are barely money.

Yahoo is planning to spin off its $30 billion stake in Chinese e-commerce bazaar Alibaba Group into a separate company called Aabaco either next month or in January.

Activist investor Starboard Value is so worried about the tax problem that it wants Mayer to scrap that idea and sell Yahoo's Internet business — that is, everything that most people associate with the Yahoo brand — instead.

If Mayer doesn't back down, Starboard is threatening to gather enough shareholder votes to toss out Yahoo's board of directors, which includes Mayer.