FILE PHOTO: A tattered flag bearing the Yahoo company logo flies above a building in New York, U.S., October 31, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said on Tuesday it would buy back up to $3 billion shares through a tender offer to provide liquidity to stockholders looking to sell the stock ahead of the company’s pending deal with Verizon Communications Inc.

Shares in Yahoo, which has a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, were up 2 percent at $50.81.

Yahoo said it would determine a single purchase price after the expiry of the Dutch auction tender offer on June 13 and that the price would not be less than $37 per share.

The company said its directors and executive officers will not tender any shares in the buyback.

Verizon agreed to buy Yahoo’s core internet properties last year for $4.83 billion in cash. It lowered the original offer by $350 million in February following two massive cyber attacks at the internet company.

After the Verizon deal, Yahoo will be renamed Altaba, a holding company whose primary assets will be its stake in Alibaba and a 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan.