It appears that after years of attempts to quietly, then not so quietly sell itself, the increasingly troubled former internet portal giant may have finally found the "greatest fool" thanks to Verizon.

According to Bloomberg, Verizon is the lead bidder for Yahoo with a total consideration of about $5 billion, and an announcement may come in the next few days.

Verizon Communications Inc. is nearing a deal to buy Yahoo! Inc., beating out rival bidders, people familiar with the matter said. The companies may be ready to announce the deal in the coming days, the people said, asking not to be named because the deliberations are private. The two companies are in one-on-one discussions, one of the people said. The deal hasn’t been finalized and may still fall apart, they said. A representative for Verizon declined to comment. A representative for Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo couldn’t immediately be reached outside of regular business hours.

What is curious is that Bloomberg adds the deal will exclude what is arguably Yahoo's most valuable asset: its patents.

Shortly after the final deal terms are known, we will try to calculated what the value added of Marissa Meyer, excluding the Alibaba stake of course, to Yahoo stakeholders has been in the 4 years since she took over.