American Internet corporation Yahoo has managed to hang onto a 24% stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba just by doing nothing since 1995. Yahoo will be required to sell much of its stake if and when Alibaba goes public. According to USA Today, Alibaba is interested in selling shares on an exchange outside mainland China. There is no date set yet, said the report, although it is widely expected that the IPO could happen in the first quarter of 2014.

Yahoo chief executive officer Marissa Mayer has bought a couple of dozen small sites in the last year as she tried to revive her fledging one-time giant. Mayer can buy a whole lot more when she cashes in those Alibaba shares, the report said.

USA Today, citing an estimate from RBC Capital Markets, said Yahoo's 24% share might be worth about $36 billion. The Canadian investment bank this week raised its price target for Yahoo to $44 million from $38 million, citing the value of Yahoo's stake in Alibaba.

Meanwhile, Internet analyst Mark Mahaney also raised his estimate of the value of Yahoo's Alibaba stake to $36 billion from $26.4 billion. Mahaney now estimates the value of Alibaba at $150 billion from just $110 billion, the report said.