Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present)
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational technology company that focuses on media and online business. It is the second and current incarnation of the company, after Verizon Communications acquired the core assets of its predecessor and merged them with AOL in 2017.[6][7] The resulting subsidiary entity was briefly called Oath Inc.[4][8][9] In December 2018, Verizon announced it would write down the combined value of its purchases of AOL and Yahoo! by $4.6 billion, roughly half;[10] the company would be renamed Verizon Media the following month in January 2019.[11]
This article is about the current incarnation of Yahoo. For the previous incarnation that existed from 1995 to 2017, see Yahoo! Inc. (1995–2017). For other uses, see Yahoo (disambiguation).Formerly
- Oath Inc.
(2017–2019) - Verizon Media
(2019–2021)
- June 13, 2017 (as Oath)
- January 8, 2019 (as Verizon Media)
- September 1, 2021 (as Yahoo!)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Worldwide
$7.4 billion (2020)[1]
- Apollo Global Management (90%)
- Verizon (10%)
10,350[2] (2019)
On May 3, 2021, Verizon announced that 90 percent of the division would be acquired by American private equity firm Apollo Global Management for roughly $5 billion, and would simply be known as Yahoo; Verizon would retain a ten percent stake in the new group.[12][13] The acquisition was completed on September 1, 2021.[14]
History[edit]
Under Verizon (2017–2021)[edit]
The company is headquartered in Manhattan, New York.[15] As of December 2019, the company employed about 10,350 people.[2][16]
A year after the completion of the AOL acquisition, Verizon announced a $4.8 billion deal for Yahoo!'s core Internet business, to invest in the Internet company's search, news, finance, sports, video, emails and Tumblr products.[17] Yahoo! announced in September and December 2016 two major Internet security breaches affecting more than a billion customers.[18] As a result, Verizon lowered its offer for Yahoo! by $350 million to $4.48 billion.[19]
The AOL deal and subsequent Yahoo! purchase were led by Verizon's management team, including Lowell McAdam (CEO), Marni Walden (EVP Product) and Tim Armstrong.[10] Walden had been tasked with merging the two entities and delivering on the promise of moving Verizon from an analog to digital platforms business.[20] Walden exited Verizon in 2017 and as later events revealed, the integration did not deliver the expected value.