Yahoo! Inc.
Formerly
  • Oath Inc.
    (2017–2019)
  • Verizon Media
    (2019–2021)
TypeJoint Venture
Industry
Predecessors
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
RevenueIncrease $7.4 billion (2020)[1]
Owners
Number of employees
10,350[2] (2019)
SubsidiariesFlurry
ASN
  • 10310
Websitewww.yahooinc.com
Footnotes / references
[3][4][5]

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]

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

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 Analytics acquired the Moviefone movie listings website from Oath, in consideration for which Verizon took a stake in Helios and Matheson.[23][24]

In April 2018, Verizon sold Flickr to SmugMug, for an undisclosed amount.[25]

In May 2018, Verizon and Samsung agreed to terms that would preload four Oath mobile apps onto Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphones.[26] 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.[27][28]

On September 12, 2018, it was announced that K. Guru Gowrappan would succeed Tim Armstrong as CEO, effective October 1.[29]

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.[30][31] The move came after the Tumblr app was removed from the Apple App Store due to issues with child pornography,[32] leading some to speculate that the ban may have been made to regain access to the App Store.[33]

In December 2018, Verizon announced that it was cutting 10% of Oath's workforce[34] 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.[35] 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 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]

Divested

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

Discontinued

References

  1. ↑ "Yahoo | 2021 Fortune 500". Fortune. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Flynn, Kerry (December 10, 2019). "Verizon Media plans to lay off 150 people this week". CNN. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  3. ↑ Hackett, Robert (August 3, 2016). "Read What Yahoo Is Telling Employees About the Verizon Deal". Fortune.com. Archived from the original on June 20, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 Spangler, Todd (June 19, 2017). "Tim Armstrong Unveils Oath: AOL-Yahoo Combo Is as Big as Netflix and Looking to Expand". Variety. Archived from the original on September 12, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
  5. ↑ Lomas, Natasha. "Latest round of Verizon layoffs at Oath affects <4% of staff globally". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
  6. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (June 23, 2015). "Verizon completes its acquisition of AOL for $4.4B". Tech Crunch. Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  7. ↑ Snider, Mike (June 23, 2015). "Verizon completes AOL acquisition, readies mobile video service". USA Today. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  8. ↑ Goel, Vindu (June 13, 2017). "Verizon Completes $4.48 Billion Purchase of Yahoo, Ending an Era". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 10, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  9. ↑ Chokshi, Niraj; Goel, Vindu (April 3, 2017). "Verizon Announces New Name Brand for AOL and Yahoo: Oath". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  10. 1 2 3 Spangler, Todd (December 11, 2018). "Verizon to Take $4.6 Billion Charge for Oath, Wiping Out Nearly All of Yahoo-AOL Unit's Goodwill Value". Variety. Archived from the original on December 18, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2018.
  11. 1 2 "Oath is now Verizon Media". Oath. January 7, 2019. Archived from the original on January 10, 2019. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Verizon Media to be acquired by Apollo Funds". May 3, 2021. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  13. 1 2 Lee, Edmund; Hirsch, Lauren (May 2, 2021). "Verizon Near Deal to Sell Yahoo and AOL". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 2, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  14. 1 2 "Yahoo is Yahoo once more after new owners complete acquisition". The Verge. September 2, 2021. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  15. ↑ Schubarth, Cromwell (June 14, 2017). "Confirmed: Combined Yahoo, AOL cutting 2,100 jobs". Silicon Valley Business Journal. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  16. ↑ DiChristopher, Tom (June 23, 2015). "Verizon closes AOL acquisition". CNBC. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  17. ↑ Goel, Vindu (July 25, 2016). "Verizon Announces $4.8 Billion Deal for Yahoo's Internet Business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  18. ↑ Goel, Vindu; Perlroth, Nicole (December 14, 2016). "Yahoo Says 1 Billion User Accounts Were Hacked". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 14, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  19. ↑ Fiegerman, Seth (February 21, 2017). "Verizon cuts Yahoo deal price by $350 million". CNN. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  20. ↑ O'Reilly, Lara (July 25, 2016). "This woman has been given the job of merging Yahoo with AOL". Business Insider. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  21. ↑ Chokshi, Niraj; Goel, Vindu (April 3, 2017). "Verizon Announces New Name Brand for AOL and Yahoo: Oath". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
  22. 1 2 3 Tharakan, Anya George; Shepardson, David (June 13, 2017). "Verizon closes Yahoo deal, Mayer steps down". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 13, 2018. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
  23. ↑ Smith, Gerry (April 5, 2018). "MoviePass Acquires Moviefone to Bolster Film-a-Day Service". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on September 12, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
  24. ↑ Carr, Flora (April 5, 2018). "MoviePass Just Bought Moviefone. Here's What It Means for Moviegoers". Fortune. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  25. ↑ Siegel, Rachel (August 13, 2019). "Tumblr once sold for $1.1 billion. The owner of WordPress just bought the site for a fraction of that". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
  26. ↑ Bode, Karl (May 4, 2018). "Verizon Brings Its Oath, Yahoo Bloatware to Samsung Phones". DSLReports. Archived from the original on May 25, 2023. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
  27. ↑ Gartenberg, Chaim (May 2, 2018). "Verizon is putting Oath bloatware like Go90 on its Galaxy S9 phones". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 6, 2018. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
  28. ↑ Sloane, Garett (May 2, 2018). "Verizon Uses Mobile Might to Get Oath Apps Onto Samsung Phones". AdAge. Archived from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  29. ↑ Fung, Brian (September 12, 2018). "Verizon says Oath CEO Tim Armstrong is stepping down". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  30. ↑ Ho, Vivian (December 3, 2018). "Tumblr's adult content ban dismays some users: 'It was a safe space'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  31. ↑ Kelly, Heather (December 3, 2018). "How Tumblr's adult content crackdown could alienate users". CNN Business. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  32. ↑ Porter, Jon (November 20, 2018). "Tumblr was removed from Apple's App Store over child pornography issues". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  33. ↑ Roettgers, Janko. "Tumblr to Ban All Adult Content". Nasdaq. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  34. ↑ Byers, Dylan (December 14, 2018). "Verizon plans to cut 10 percent of Oath staff". NBC News. Archived from the original on December 17, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2018.
  35. ↑ Jackson, Abby (December 11, 2018). "Verizon will write down $4.6 billion in value of Oath, the unit that combined AOL and Yahoo assets". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 12, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2018.
  36. ↑ "SmugMug snaps up Flickr photo service from Verizon's Oath". USA Today. April 20, 2018. Archived from the original on September 22, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  37. ↑ Lee, Edmund; Hsu, Tiffany (November 19, 2020). "BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost From Verizon Media". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  38. ↑ Stephen, Bijan (November 19, 2020). "Verizon goes 180 on HuffPost, sells it to BuzzFeed". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 17, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  39. ↑ Sherman, Alex (September 10, 2021). "Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone will be next CEO of Yahoo following Apollo acquisition". CNBC. Archived from the original on September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  40. ↑ "Our brands". Yahoo Inc. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  41. ↑ Miller, Chance (August 12, 2019). "WordPress owner Automattic to acquire Tumblr for 'nominal amount'". 9to5Mac. Archived from the original on August 12, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
  42. ↑ Hagey, Benjamin Mullin and Keach (November 19, 2020). "BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost in Stock Deal With Verizon Media". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on November 19, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  43. ↑ Fingas, Jon (October 25, 2017). "Alto Mail is shutting down now that AOL is part of Oath". Engadget. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  44. ↑ Statt, Nick (June 28, 2018). "Verizon is shutting down its original video app Go90". The Verge. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
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