CNBC's Jim Cramer is not convinced that Yahoo's reverse spinoff plan will work.
"A company is either for sale or it's not," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street" on Wednesday. "What I'm confused on is I listened and basically heard core is not for sale. Where do the stories therefore emanate which say core is for sale?"
Yahoo has weighed its strategic options amid a rough stretch for its Internet business and stock price. If it chooses a reverse spin, the company would effectively separate its core assets from its lucrative stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
In addition to the reverse spinoff, Yahoo announced Tuesday plans to cut about 15 percent of its workforce and close five offices — a step that is expected to happen in the first quarter. The company hopes to trim operating expenses by more than $400 million by the end of the year.
With the restructuring, Yahoo also aims to make its platforms more attractive to advertisers, improve sales and profitability, and boost its mobile business. The company will also consider divesting some nonstrategic assets, by which it said it could generate $1 billion or more in cash.
Cramer said if you look at the core assets apart from its "Mavens" operation — mobile, video, native and social ads — the tech company is still worth "considerably more" than $1 billion.
"This is a dichotomy most people can't get their heads around," said Cramer.
Yahoo's shares were down 6 percent during afternoon trading on Wednesday.
Disclosure: CNBC has a content-sharing partnership with Yahoo's finance site.
— CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report.