Yahoo on Friday introduced the world — and especially its shareholders — to Aabaco Holdings, the new name for the spinoff entity that will take over the Sunnyvale tech company’s more than $30 billion shares in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.
When Yahoo spins off its 15 percent Alibaba stake later this year, Aabaco will own all 384 million of its shares that will be distributed tax-free back to Yahoo shareholders.
What’s in the name? It sounds a little like an ode to Alibaba, but Yahoo won’t say for sure, declining to comment during the quiet period ahead of Tuesday’s quarterly earnings report.
Which left some of us wondering why Yahoo chose a name that’s already being used by at least one U.S. company. Aabaco Plastics, which makes bubble bags, foam bags, trash bags and pallets covers near the banks of the Cuyahoga River in Garfield Heights, Ohio.
(It was also the name of a New England paving company in the early 20th century.)
The Ohio plastics company was founded in 1952 and incorporated as Aabaco in 1968, just a year after Dustin Hoffman learned “there’s a great future in plastics.”
So what does the plastics maker think of Yahoo’s news, which broke at the close of the business day in the eastern United States?
“It’s not something we’ve trademarked. We’re in totally different industries,” said John Roberts, an employee who answered the phone at the plant late Friday.
He added that, as the maintenance guy, “it’s not really my department” but to check back with management on Monday.
