Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present)

The second incarnation of Yahoo Inc. is an American multinational technology company that focuses on media and online business. The current incarnation of the company was formed in 2017. Verizon Communications acquired AOL in 2015,[6][7] and later purchased several assets from the previous incarnation, Yahoo! Inc., in 2017. The two entities would merge into a new subsidiary named Oath Inc. later that year.[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]

Yahoo
Formerly
  • Oath Inc. (2017–2019)
  • Verizon Media (2019–2021)
TypePrivate
Industry
Predecessor
  • Yahoo! Inc. (1995–2017)
  • AOL
Founded
  • June 13, 2017 (2017-06-13) (as Oath)
  • January 8, 2019 (2019-01-08) (as Verizon Media)
  • September 1, 2021 (2021-09-01) (as Yahoo)
HeadquartersNew York City, New York, U.S.
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Jim Lanzone (CEO)
Brands
Services
Revenue $7.4 billion (2020)[1]
Owners
Number of employees
10,350[2] (2019)
Subsidiaries
  • Flurry
Websitewww.yahooinc.com
Footnotes / references
[3][4][5]

On May 3, 2021, Verizon announced that 90 percent of the division would be acquired by Apollo Global Management for roughly $5 billion, and would simply be known as Yahoo after the agreement comes to a close. Verizon would retain a 10% stake in the new group.[12][13] The acquisition was completed on September 1, 2021.[14]

Operations

Under Verizon (2017–2021)

The company maintains dual headquarters at the former AOL and Yahoo! headquarters buildings in Manhattan, New York, and Sunnyvale, California, respectively.[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.

Oath logo, 2017–2019

Two months before closing the deal for Yahoo!, Verizon announced it would place Yahoo! and AOL under an umbrella named Oath.[21] The deal closed on June 13, 2017, and Oath was launched.[22] Upon completion of the deal, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer resigned.[22] Yahoo! operations not acquired in the deal were renamed Altaba, a holding company whose primary assets are its 15.5 percent stake in Alibaba Group and 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo! Japan.[22] After the merger, Oath cut fifteen percent of the Yahoo-AOL workforce.[4] In 2018, Altaba sold Yahoo! Japan to SoftBank Group.

In April 2018, Helios and Matheson acquired the Moviefone movie listings website from Oath. As part of the transaction, Verizon took a stake in Helios and Matheson Analytics stock.[23][24]

In May 2018, Verizon and Samsung agreed to terms that would preload four Oath applications ("apps") onto Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphones.[25] The agreement includes Oath's Newsroom, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, and go90 mobile video apps (closed in July 2018), with integration of native Oath advertisements into both the Oath apps and Samsung's own Galaxy and Game Launcher apps.[26][27]

On September 12, 2018, it was announced that K. Guru Gowrappan would succeed Tim Armstrong as CEO, effective October 1.[28]

On December 3, 2018, the company declared a new set of rules for the Tumblr community that took effect December 17, 2018, banning "adult content". This move raised objections that it harms their LGBTQ community, sexual abuse survivors, sex workers, adult content blogs, and other bloggers.[29][30] The move came after the Tumblr app was removed from the Apple App Store due to issues with child pornography,[31] leading some to speculate that the ban may have been made to regain access to the App Store.[32]

In December 2018, Verizon announced that it was cutting 10% of Oath's workforce[33] and would write down the value of the business by $4.6B. Verizon management blamed competitive pressures and that the business never achieved the anticipated benefits.[34] The move wiped out all of the goodwill on the balance sheets that accompanied the acquisitions.[10]

Verizon Media logo, 2019–2021

On January 8, 2019, Oath was renamed Verizon Media.[11]

In April 2018, Verizon sold Flickr to SmugMug, for an undisclosed amount.[35]

In August 2019, Verizon sold Tumblr to Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, for an undisclosed amount which was reportedly less than $3 million.[36]

In November 2020, Verizon sold HuffPost to BuzzFeed.[37] in an all-stock deal, remaining minority shareholder in Buzzfeed.[38]

As Yahoo (2021–present)

On May 3, 2021, Verizon announced that the Verizon Media would be acquired by Apollo Global Management for roughly $5 billion, and would simply be known as Yahoo following the closure of the deal, with Verizon retaining a minor 10% stake in the new group.[13] The acquisition was completed on September 1, 2021, with the company now known as Yahoo.[14]

On September 10, 2021, Jim Lanzone, who had most recently served as CEO of Tinder, was named CEO of Yahoo, succeeding Gowrappan.[39]

Brands

Some of the digital media brands under Yahoo include:[40]

  • AOL
  • Autoblog
  • Built by Girls
  • Engadget
  • Flurry
  • In the Know
  • Makers
  • Rivals
  • TechCrunch
  • Yahoo! (including Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Life, Yahoo! Entertainment, Yahoo Fantasy and Yahoo! Sportsbook.)

Divested
  • Flickr (sold to SmugMug in 2018)
  • Moviefone (sold to Helios and Matheson in 2018)
  • Polyvore (sold and merged into SSENSE in 2018)
  • MapQuest (sold to System1 in 2019)
  • Tumblr (sold to WordPress.com owner Automattic in 2019)[41]
  • HuffPost (sold to BuzzFeed in 2020)[42]
  • Edgecast (sold and merged into Edgio in 2022)

It had partial ownership of Moviefone's former parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., until its liquidation in 2020.

Discontinued
  • Alto Mail (discontinued on December 10, 2017)[43]
  • AIM (discontinued on December 15, 2017)
  • go90 (closed on July 31, 2018)[44]
  • Yahoo! Messenger (discontinued on July 17, 2018)
  • Yahoo! Together (discontinued in April 2019)

References
  1. "Yahoo | 2021 Fortune 500". Fortune.
  2. Flynn, Kerry (December 10, 2019). "Verizon Media plans to lay off 150 people this week". CNN. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  3. Hackett, Robert (3 August 2016). "Read What Yahoo Is Telling Employees About the Verizon Deal". Fortune.com. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  4. Spangler, Todd (June 19, 2017). "Tim Armstrong Unveils Oath: AOL-Yahoo Combo Is as Big as Netflix and Looking to Expand". Variety. Retrieved June 19, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. Lomas, Natasha. "Latest round of Verizon layoffs at Oath affects <4% of staff globally". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-02-19.
  6. Lunden, Ingrid (23 June 2015). "Verizon completes its acquisition of AOL for $4.4B". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  7. Snider, Mike (23 June 2015). "Verizon completes AOL acquisition, readies mobile video service". USA Today. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  8. Goel, Vindu (2017-06-13). "Verizon Completes $4.48 Billion Purchase of Yahoo, Ending an Era". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  9. Chokshi, Niraj; Goel, Vindu (2017-04-03). "Verizon Announces New Name Brand for AOL and Yahoo: Oath". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-04-04.
  10. Spangler, Todd (11 December 2018). "Verizon to Take $4.6 Billion Charge for Oath, Wiping Out Nearly All of Yahoo-AOL Unit's Goodwill Value". Variety.com. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  11. "Oath is now Verizon Media". Oath. 2019-01-07. Retrieved 2019-01-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. "Verizon Media to be acquired by Apollo Funds". 3 May 2021.
  13. Lee, Edmund; Hirsch, Lauren (2021-05-02). "Verizon Near Deal to Sell Yahoo and AOL". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  14. "Yahoo is Yahoo once more after new owners complete acquisition". The Verge. 2 September 2021.
  15. Schubarth, Cromwell (14 June 2017). "Confirmed: Combined Yahoo, AOL cutting 2,100 jobs". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  16. DiChristopher, Tom (23 June 2015). "Verizon closes AOL acquisition". CNBC. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  17. Goel, Vindu (2016-07-25). "Verizon Announces $4.8 Billion Deal for Yahoo's Internet Business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  18. Goel, Vindu; Perlroth, Nicole (2016-12-14). "Yahoo Says 1 Billion User Accounts Were Hacked". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  19. Fiegerman, Seth (21 February 2017). "Verizon cuts Yahoo deal price by $350 million". CNN. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  20. O'Reilly, Lara (25 July 2016). "This woman has been given the job of merging Yahoo with AOL". Business Insider.
  21. Chokshi, Niraj; Goel, Vindu (2017-04-03). "Verizon Announces New Name Brand for AOL and Yahoo: Oath". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
  22. Tharakan, Anya George; Shepardson, David (13 June 2017). "Verizon closes Yahoo deal, Mayer steps down". Reuters. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  23. Smith, Gerry (April 5, 2018). "MoviePass Acquires Moviefone to Bolster Film-a-Day Service". Bloomberg. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  24. Carr, Flora (April 5, 2018). "MoviePass Just Bought Moviefone. Here's What It Means for Moviegoers". Fortune. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  25. Bode, Karl (4 May 2018). "Verizon Brings Its Oath, Yahoo Bloatware to Samsung Phones". DSLReports.com. Retrieved 6 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  26. Gartenberg, Chaim (2 May 2018). "Verizon is putting Oath bloatware like Go90 on its Galaxy S9 phones". The Verge. Retrieved 6 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  27. Sloane, Garett (2 May 2018). "Verizon Uses Mobile Might to Get Oath Apps Onto Samsung Phones". AdAge. Retrieved 4 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. Fung, Brian (12 September 2018). "Verizon says Oath CEO Tim Armstrong is stepping down". The Washington Post.
  29. Ho, Vivian (2018-12-03). "Tumblr's adult content ban dismays some users: 'It was a safe space'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
  30. Kelly, Heather (2018-12-03). "How Tumblr's adult content crackdown could alienate users". CNN Business. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
  31. Porter, Jon (2018-11-20). "Tumblr was removed from Apple's App Store over child pornography issues". The Verge. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  32. Roettgers, Janko. "Tumblr to Ban All Adult Content". Nasdaq. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  33. Byers, Dylan (14 December 2018). "Verizon plans to cut 10 percent of Oath staff". NBC News. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  34. Jackson, Abby (2018-12-11). "Verizon will write down $4.6 billion in value of Oath, the unit that combined AOL and Yahoo assets". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-12-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  35. Siegel, Rachel (13 August 2019). "Tumblr once sold for $1.1 billion. The owner of WordPress just bought the site for a fraction of that". The Washington Post.
  36. "SmugMug snaps up Flickr photo service from Verizon's Oath". USA Today. 20 April 2018.
  37. Lee, Edmund; Hsu, Tiffany (19 November 2020). "BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost From Verizon Media". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  38. Stephen, Bijan (2020-11-19). "Verizon goes 180 on HuffPost, sells it to BuzzFeed". The Verge. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
  39. Sherman, Alex (September 10, 2021). "Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone will be next CEO of Yahoo following Apollo acquisition". CNBC.
  40. "Our brands". Yahoo Inc. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
  41. Miller, Chance (2019-08-12). "WordPress owner Automattic to acquire Tumblr for 'nominal amount'". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 2019-08-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  42. Hagey, Benjamin Mullin and Keach (2020-11-19). "BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost in Stock Deal With Verizon Media". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  43. Fingas, Jon (25 October 2017). "Alto Mail is shutting down now that AOL is part of Oath". Engadget. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  44. Statt, Nick (2018-06-28). "Verizon is shutting down its original video app Go90". The Verge.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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