Verizon confirm takeover of Yahoo web assets for USD 4.8 bln

News Broadband Global 25 JUL 2016
Verizon confirm takeover of Yahoo web assets for USD 4.8 bln

Verizon has confirmed a deal to acquire Yahoo!'s web activities for USD 4.83 billion in cash. The acquisition sees Verizon expand further in digital media, following its takeover of AOL last year, investments in video content and launch of a mobile video service. 

Yahoo’s search and web properties will be merged with AOL, and additional technology assets to be acquired by Verizon include the programmatic ad platform Brightroll, mobile apps analytics service Flurry, and Gemini, Yahoo's native and search advertising platform. With AOL and Yahoo, Verizon will have a portfolio of over 25 leading consumer online brands, including the around 225 million users of Yahoo email and over 600 million monthly mobile visitors to Yahoo websites. 

Yahoo will hold on to its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, its cash and convertible notes, certain minority investments, and non-core patents (called the Excalibur portfolio). Following the takeover, which is expected to close by Q1 2017, Yahoo will change its company name and operate as a publicly traded investment company. The company said it plans to distribute nearly all its cash to shareholders, under a new capital strategy to be announced at a later date. 

The sale to Verizon brings to an end Yahoo's strategic review, started in February after it was unable to complete a plan to spin off the Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stakes. Yahoo has been under pressure for over a year from shareholders to monetise the assets, which overshadow the value in its share price of its web activities. It was forced to shelve plans to spin off the holdings after US authorities could not rule out a negative tax impact for the company and its shareholders from the proposed deal. This led the company to instead consider selling its core web business. 

Categories:

Internet

Companies:

AOL,  Verizon,  Yahoo!,  Alibaba,  Flurry,  Yahoo Japan

Regions:

Global

Tags:

Messaging, Portals / social media, Advertising services, M&A buyouts & divestments

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