There are five bidders in the final round for Yahoo's core business, CNBC has learned.
Final bids for the company's internet business were expected yesterday, but no news came out of the company's fiscal second-quarter earnings, when CEO Marissa Mayer said the company was in deep in the midst of "robust" review of strategic alternatives.
Sources told CNBC that their goal is to finish the bidding process by the end of July.
Yahoo's shares had risen about 14 percent so far this year, in part because investors waited to learn its potential owner, according to Zacks' deputy manager Sejuti Banerjea.
Bidders like telecom companies and private equity firms had been reported by Recode to be interested in acquiring Yahoo's core internet business, plus or minus some real estate and patents. Yahoo expected bids to range from $3 billion to $5 billion, according to Recode.
Analysts had told CNBC that Verizon is the likely front-runner to buy Yahoo.
The sale comes amid pressure from activist investors, who had watched Yahoo's stock struggle amid reports of ad fraud issues and middling paid clicks from search — while Yahoo's stake in China's Alibaba soared in relative value.
— Reporting by CNBC's David Faber