Verizon to buy struggling Yahoo for $4.83 billion

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in General Discussion
Verizon on Monday announced a deal to buy the search engine pioneer Yahoo for $4.8 billion, granting Verizon over one billion total monthly search users in conjunction with another large internet advertising network that it will be adding to the AOL network.




Combined, the companies will hold 25 media and advertising brands, and will have an email service with 225 million monthly active users.

Both companies are Apple partners: Verizon is one of the largest iPhone carriers in the world, while Yahoo is a default search engine on Apple products and its data is still used in the iPhone's native Stocks app. The iOS Weather app was also provided by Yahoo up until the release of iOS 8.

The sale comes at the end of a year of speculation, and preparations for a possible sale for Yahoo. In March, Yahoo laid off 1000 and closed offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Milan to consolidate costs, and prepare for a sale or split of the company.

The sale is not for the entirety of Yahoo, and does not include Yahoo's cash, shares in Alibaba Group Holdings, shares in Yahoo Japan, other investments, and Yahoo's patent portfolio not related to search and advertising. The assets not transferred to Verizon will continue to be held by Yahoo, which will change its name at closing and transition into becoming an investment company.

The deal supplements the AOL purchase in May 2015, and further extends Verizon's already large advertising network. The AOL deal also delivered a number of major news websites to Verizon, including Engadget, the Huffington Post, and TechCrunch, along with a larger "multiple screen" media strategy. The AOL purchase was also responsible for the closure of Apple enthusiast site TUAW.

The deal is subject to traditional closing restrictions, including regulatory approvals, and Yahoo shareholder approval. Verizon expects the deal to finalize in the first quarter of 2017.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    mnbob1mnbob1 Posts: 269member
    I have had an AOL email account and use it as my primary account. I've had it since 1994 when AOL was the only consumer service for connecting to the world. Back then I connected via a 300 bps modem and then I thought I was in heaven when I upgraded to 1200 bps. What a wonder a 19200 bps was! What a bill I sometimes racked up at the hourly rate. Today if I use the AOL web interface for email access since Verizon bought them what a miriad of ads and crappy news I see!

    I have used Yahoo! as my home page for years. I like the layout even though it's been through some interesting changes over the years. I get my appleinsider headlines via Yahoo!. I'm not looking forward to what Verizon might do to Yahoo! and my favorite homepage. I'm 59 and change is difficult for this old guy on such things. I always look forward to OS and productivity app upgrades but when I start my browser I want my Yahoo!
    xzulatifbpdavenRayz2016cali
  • Reply 2 of 20
    brakkenbrakken Posts: 687member
    Good.  Maybe those awful blogger sites will stop writing crack about Apple.
  • Reply 3 of 20
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    Yahoo! = DMW. Can't believe that Verizon actually paid anything for it. For quite a while, the value of the company was below the value of its Alibaba holdings. In other words, the market was attaching a value < 0 for Yahoo!'s operating assets.
  • Reply 4 of 20
    robin huberrobin huber Posts: 3,949member
    And the U.S. CEO get rich quick scheme rolls on. That blonde who warmed a chair for a couple of years will be rewarded with obscene amounts of money for just showing up. 
    ChampionPowernolamacguydewmedysamoria
  • Reply 5 of 20
    chris vchris v Posts: 460member
    Just so long as they don't close down or screw up Flickr... I have WAAY too much time & effort involved in my Flickr page.
    jony0
  • Reply 6 of 20
    If you want to run a high tech company into the ground, hire Ms Meyer or Carly Fiorina.
  • Reply 7 of 20
    And the U.S. CEO get rich quick scheme rolls on. That blonde who warmed a chair for a couple of years will be rewarded with obscene amounts of money for just showing up. 
    Yes the blonde wonder kid had feet of clay, a pretty young blonde Google software engineer who had more hype than CEO talent.  
  • Reply 8 of 20
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    And the U.S. CEO get rich quick scheme rolls on. That blonde who warmed a chair for a couple of years will be rewarded with obscene amounts of money for just showing up. 
    Yes the blonde wonder kid had feet of clay, a pretty young blonde Google software engineer who had more hype than CEO talent.  
    ...and who if she ends up back at Google won't shock me. Of course she doesn't need to work at all as she's already set for life, so it may take some big challenge to get her attention. As another CEO may be a little above pay-grade at the moment. 
    edited July 2016
  • Reply 9 of 20
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    If you want to run a high tech company into the ground, hire Ms Meyer or Carly Fiorina.

    can not agree more. I do not have anything against woman running a business I know lots of very successful women who run their own business. However, if you are not into Geek you should not be running a technology company and Most women are not into geek that much if they are they not business minded. It hard enough to find a Business minded guy who is also Geek let along a woman.
  • Reply 10 of 20
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    Since CZ now owns a search company and they usually install their own software on their cell phone they sell, do this mean that all Android phones they sell will have Yahoo as the default search tool. We know they will not win that battle with Apple. But the android guys have not power over VZ. VZ make them all install specific software for them. This could be an interesting battle with Google if VZ requires any android phone they sell to default to Yahoo verses Google.
    cali
  • Reply 11 of 20
    What's happening to Flickr? That's the only part of Yahoo! I care about. It's not perfect but you can't argue with 1 TB of free space. I have thousands of photos stored/backed up there and share albums with my family members.
  • Reply 12 of 20
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    maestro64 said:
    Since CZ now owns a search company and they usually install their own software on their cell phone they sell, do this mean that all Android phones they sell will have Yahoo as the default search tool. We know they will not win that battle with Apple. But the android guys have not power over VZ. VZ make them all install specific software for them. This could be an interesting battle with Google if VZ requires any android phone they sell to default to Yahoo verses Google.
    IIRC Yahoo signed some content/search deal with Google too last year. Can't remember the details and no biggie anyway. 
  • Reply 13 of 20
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    I knew this day was coming, so I had been reviewing and deleting thousands of emails and I erased my address book in Yahoo! mail a while ago. Them continually getting hacked didn't help matters either.
    edited July 2016
  • Reply 14 of 20
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    I knew this day was coming, so I had been reviewing and deleting thousands of emails and I erased my address book in Yahoo! mail a while ago. Them continually getting hacked didn't help matters either.
    Wait, any idea how you got hacked? I remember I couldn't log in to my email and stopped trying after several attempts. Same password for years and suddenly it was "invalid".

    maestro64 said:
    Since CZ now owns a search company and they usually install their own software on their cell phone they sell, do this mean that all Android phones they sell will have Yahoo as the default search tool. We know they will not win that battle with Apple. But the android guys have not power over VZ. VZ make them all install specific software for them. This could be an interesting battle with Google if VZ requires any android phone they sell to default to Yahoo verses Google.

    That may be the plan and can return a ton of revenue to both companies.

  • Reply 15 of 20
    I like the Yahoo News app. I think it is pretty slick and provides good information.
  • Reply 16 of 20
    Yahoo is just providing me-too products and never polish them to make outshine others. Worst, their typical product and service are full of bugs and errors or out of date. I never enjoyed a single day without an error using their websites or services. I really wonder what their programmers are doing.
  • Reply 17 of 20
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,331member
    Re: I really wonder what their programmers are doing.

    um, probably looking for new jobs while their totally ineffective CEO is searching for an even larger vault to store the obscene stash. But most of us would mop up the spoils of that kind of deal if it was offered to us. The BOD must be smoking something that permanently alters reality. 
    edited July 2016
  • Reply 18 of 20
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    chris v said:
    Just so long as they don't close down or screw up Flickr... I have WAAY too much time & effort involved in my Flickr page.
    Flickr already ran me off on a rail. I don't much care what happens to certain managers there. 

    What I'm more bothered by is the continued consolidation. It has to stop.

    the US government should step in. It probably won't. But it should. It should have never allowed this. Clinton's husband is to blame for this specific nonsense.
  • Reply 19 of 20
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    maestro64 said:
    If you want to run a high tech company into the ground, hire Ms Meyer or Carly Fiorina.

    can not agree more. I do not have anything against woman running a business I know lots of very successful women who run their own business. However, if you are not into Geek you should not be running a technology company and Most women are not into geek that much if they are they not business minded. It hard enough to find a Business minded guy who is also Geek let along a woman.
    You can thank our male-dominated cultures, geek jerks chasing women away from tech, for any truth in that scenario.
  • Reply 20 of 20
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    dysamoria said:
    You can thank our male-dominated cultures
    Rescind this comment.
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