Official: Verizon Acquires Yahoo For $4.8 Billion
U.S telecom giant, Verizon has acquired Yahoo for $4.83 billion, the companies said, Monday.
Verizon will acquire Yahoo’s operating business, which includes advertising technology and popular online content such as Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance and Tumblr. Also included in the deal: the Yahoo brand and real estate attached to the core busines s including Yahoo’s Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters
However, the deal excludes some patents and Yahoo’s cash. That leaves Yahoo with its 15% stake in Chinese retailing giant Alibaba (BABA), worth $32 billion, and its 36% stake in Yahoo Japan, worth about $8 billion.
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The deal, which is yet to be approved by regulators and is expected to be finalized in the first quarter of 2017.
Yahoo’s 1 billion monthly users across its various platforms is what attracted Verizon and AOL, says AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, who will oversee the integration, under the purview of Marni Walden, Verizon’s executive vice president and president of the product innovation and new businesses organization.
“Yahoo has … a very talented team and they have a very interesting set of brands, but most importantly they have a billion users,” Armstrong told USA TODAY in an interview Monday. “The scale game has really changed and my guess is in the next five years it’s going to even more dramatically change,” he said.
“So putting these companies together gives us a very significant leg up in terms of competing for the future.”
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The sale puts an end to Yahoo’s 21-year history as an independent company. Yahoo will now be integrated with Verizon-owned AOL to create a new mobile and online powerhouse, the telecom company said.
The company also revealed that Yahoo will change its name and become a publicly traded investment company.
