The right-wing UK tabloid Daily Mail is reportedly in talks with private equity firms about putting together an offer to buy Yahoo, the struggling US tech company that was once the darling of the new internet age.

A spokesman for the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) told the AP news agency that discussions were "at a very early stage" and there was no certainty a deal would take place.  Yahoo has not yet commented on the story, which first appeared in the Sunday Wall Street Journal.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer had been under intense pressure to turn the company around since she took over the top job in 2012.  Earlier this year, the company slashed 15 percent of its workforce impacting 1,700 employees; cut off branches of the company that Ms. Mayer determined were no longer worthy of support; and pulled the plug on an online video hub that had once been envisioned as Yahoo's answer to Netflix and YouTube.  Shares of Yahoo have fallen about 30 percent since the end of 2014.

Google and the US telecom Verizon are also circling Yahoo, considering a bid at its assets.