Timeline of Yahoo

Yahoo!

Yahoo! logo
Company type	Public
Industry	Internet services and products
Founded	March 1994 (1994-03)
Founder	Jerry Yang, David Filo
Headquarters	Sunnyvale, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jerry Yang (co-founder, former CEO), David Filo (co-founder), Tim Koogle (former CEO), Terry Semel (former CEO), Carol Bartz (former CEO), Scott Thompson (former CEO)
Products	Web portal, search engine, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Store, Yahoo! News, Flickr, Yahoo! Music, Yahoo! 360°, Yahoo! Widgets
Number of employees	Not specified
Parent	Not specified
Website	www.yahoo.com

1994

• January 1994: While attending Stanford University, Jerry Yang and David Filo develop "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web."
• March 1994: The website is rebranded as "Yahoo!."

1995

• March 2, 1995: Yahoo! is officially established as a corporation.
• August 1995: Yahoo! launches its commercial website, incorporating advertising and Reuters news content. Tim Koogle assumes the role of CEO.

1996

• April 12, 1996: Yahoo! goes public with its initial stock offering, closing at $33.00 per share, representing a 270% increase over the IPO price.
• September 1996: The company introduces Yahoo! UK.

1997

• October 8, 1997: Yahoo! completes the acquisition of Four11 for roughly $94 million in stock.

1998

• June 1998: Yahoo! merges Four11's Rocketmail and ymail.com services into Yahoo! Mail.
• June 8, 1998: Yahoo! purchases Viaweb for $49 million, which is later transformed into Yahoo! Store.
• October 12, 1998: The company acquires Yoyodyne Entertainment, Inc., a direct marketing firm.

1999

• January 28, 1999: Yahoo! acquires Geocities in a stock transaction valued at $4.58 billion.
• April 1, 1999: Yahoo! buys Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in stock.

2000

• January 3, 2000: Yahoo’s stock closes at a record high of $475.00 (pre-split), having reached an intraday peak of $500.13 the previous day.
• January 19, 2000: Shares of Yahoo Japan reach a historic milestone by trading above ¥100 million for the first time in Japan, closing at 101.4 million yen ($962,140).
• February 7, 2000: A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack temporarily disrupts Yahoo.com. Despite this, shares increased approximately $16 (4.5%) the next day as the outage was attributed to external hackers rather than internal problems.
• May 22, 2000: In the case LICRA v. Yahoo!, a French court mandates that Yahoo block Nazi-related websites and halt sales of racist memorabilia. Yahoo disputes the court’s jurisdiction; these demands were eventually dropped by 2003. Subsequently, Yahoo voluntarily stopped selling Nazi and Ku Klux Klan items.
• June 28, 2000: Yahoo acquires eGroups through a stock transaction.

2001

• March 7, 2001: CEO Tim Koogle announces his resignation but remains on the board of directors.
• April 17, 2001: Terry Semel is appointed as Yahoo’s new CEO.
• September 26, 2001: Yahoo’s stock closes at a historic low of $8.11 (pre-split).
• September 18, 2001: Security researcher Adrian Lamo reveals vulnerabilities in Yahoo! News; no legal action is taken.
• October 2001: Yahoo purchases Sold.com, an Australian auction platform owned by Fairfax Media, generating AU$18.3 million for Fairfax.
• December 27, 2001: Yahoo offers $436 million to acquire HotJobs, a job search engine, outbidding TMP Worldwide (Monster.com).

2002

• February 13, 2002: The acquisition of HotJobs by Yahoo is finalized.
• June 3, 2002: SBC Communications partners with Yahoo to launch a nationwide co-branded dial service.
• December 2002: Yahoo begins its acquisition process for web search engine company Inktomi.

2003

• June 2003: BT Openworld enters into a partnership with Yahoo!
• July 2003: Yahoo! completes the acquisition of Overture Services, Inc.

2004

• On January 19, 2004, Yahoo! inaugurated Yahoo Research Labs under the leadership of Dr. Gary William Flake, its Head and Principal Scientist, concentrating on pioneering technology innovations.
• February 19, 2004 saw Yahoo! introduce its proprietary web-crawling algorithm and site index, replacing the previously Google-powered search results.
• Beginning March 1, 2004, Yahoo! implemented paid inclusion within its search offerings while still maintaining a predominantly free web crawling system.
• To bolster its e-commerce presence, Yahoo! acquired the European shopping search platform Kelkoo on March 25, 2004.
• On July 9, 2004, Yahoo! expanded its communication services by purchasing the email provider Oddpost.
• December 15, 2004 marked the launch of Yahoo!'s beta version of a video search engine, broadening its multimedia search capabilities.

2005

• On February 9, 2005, Yahoo! rebranded Yahoo! Launch as Yahoo! Music, featuring streaming audio, music videos, Internet radio stations, exclusive artist content, and music news updates.
• Yahoo! opened its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland on February 15, 2005, generating approximately 400 new employment opportunities.
• A developer network offering APIs across most of Yahoo!'s search verticals was introduced on February 28, 2005.
• In March 2005, Yahoo acquired Stadeon, a company specializing in game platform development.
• To commemorate its tenth anniversary on March 2, 2005, Yahoo celebrated with promotional campaigns at U.S. Baskin-Robbins outlets.
• On March 20, 2005, Yahoo! purchased photo sharing service Flickr and its parent company Ludicorp.
• The launch of blogging and social networking platform Yahoo! 360° occurred on March 29, 2005.
• Support from Yahoo! was announced by the Wikimedia Foundation on April 7, 2005.
• Yahoo introduced PhotoMail service on May 26, 2005.
• The acquisition of VoIP provider DialPad Communications was completed by Yahoo on June 14, 2005.
• On July 15, 2005, Yahoo unveiled Yahoo! Research Berkeley, a collaborative initiative with UC Berkeley focused on Internet technology research.
• The widget engine software Konfabulator was acquired by Yahoo on July 25, 2005 and rebranded as the complimentary platform Yahoo! Widgets.
• August 11, 2005 saw Yahoo purchase a 40% equity stake in Alibaba.com for $1 billion; Alibaba subsequently took over management of Yahoo China operations.
• Verizon and Yahoo partnered to launch an integrated DSL service on August 23, 2005.
• Controversy emerged on September 7, 2005 when Yahoo provided information to Chinese authorities that led to journalist Shi Tao's imprisonment; Yahoo stated it acted in accordance with local laws.
• On October 4, 2005, Yahoo acquired the online social event calendar service Upcoming.org.
• The British location technology company Whereonearth Ltd. was purchased by Yahoo on October 17, 2005.
• A security breach occurred on November 15, 2005 when the sports section of My Yahoo! was hacked and redirected users to unrelated sites.
• On December 1, 2005, TiVo and Yahoo! formed a partnership allowing select Yahoo! features to be accessible via TiVo Series2 set-top boxes.
• During December (U.S./Australian time) in 2005, Australia's Seven Network merged its online and mobile media assets with Yahoo's local operations to establish Yahoo!7, which covered major events such as the Australian Open and Winter Olympics in early 2006.
• The social bookmarking platform del.icio.us was acquired by Yahoo on December 9, 2005.

2006

• January 9, 2006: Yahoo completes acquisition of WebJay.
• January 2006: Introduction of Yahoo!7.
• February 12, 2006: Launch of the Yahoo! Developer Network PHP Center.
• May 1, 2006: Yahoo unveils Yahoo! Tech.
• September 27, 2006: Purchase of Jumpcut, an online video editing platform.
• September 29–30, 2006: Yahoo! organizes Open Hack Day, featuring a live performance by Beck.
• December 5, 2006: Announcement of a significant corporate restructuring; COO Dan Rosensweig, Lloyd Braun, and John Marcom exit; Sue Decker advances from CFO to a higher role.
• December 13, 2006: Debut of Yahoo!Xtra, a collaborative venture between Telecom NZ and Yahoo!7 in New Zealand.

2007

• January 8, 2007: Acquisition of MyBlogLog finalized.
• February 5, 2007: Launch of Panama, a new platform for search advertising.
• March 1, 2007: Rollout of the localized portal Yahoo!Xtra in New Zealand.
• March 2007: Acquisition of Taiwanese blogging service wretch.cc.
• April 30, 2007: Purchase of Right Media for $680 million.
• June 16, 2007: Discontinuation of Yahoo! Auctions outside select Asian markets.
• June 18, 2007: Jerry Yang assumes CEO position, succeeding Terry Semel.
• June 20, 2007: Agreement reached to acquire Rivals.com.
• June 28, 2007: Closure of Yahoo! UK/Ireland auction services; Hong Kong auctions continue operations.
• July 18, 2007: Acquisition of a 35% ownership stake in Tyroo Media Pvt Ltd, an Indian online advertising firm.
• August 20–September 20, 2007: Yahoo! Photos is discontinued to facilitate user migration to Flickr.
• August 27, 2007: Introduction of SMS capabilities in Yahoo! Mail and embedding travel information within emails.
• September 4, 2007: Acquisition of BlueLithium, founded by Gurbaksh Chahal.

2008

• February 1, 2008: Microsoft proposes a $44.6 billion bid to purchase Yahoo!.
• February 4, 2008: Yahoo acquires FoxyTunes and announces a strategic alliance with Rhapsody in digital music.
• February 12, 2008: Acquisition of Maven Networks to enhance online video offerings and formation of a strategic partnership with T-Mobile.
• November 17, 2008: Jerry Yang steps down as CEO after serving for eighteen months.

2009

• January 13, 2009: Carol Bartz is named CEO of Yahoo!, taking over from Jerry Yang.
• December 2009: Integration of Facebook Connect across Yahoo platforms to improve social media interaction.

2010

• March: Acquisition of Citizen Sports, a mobile sports and social gaming startup, adding valuable mobile assets and engineering expertise.
• July: Release of mail and messenger applications for Android devices.
• July: Announcement of a search partnership with Microsoft.
• August: Replacement of Yahoo! Organic Search results with Bing's organic listings.
• October: Purchase of advertising startup Dapper.

2011

• September 6: Termination of CEO Carol Bartz’s employment.
• November: Acquisition of Interclick, specializing in user behavior analysis and targeted advertising technology.

2012

• January: Scott Thompson appointed as CEO following Bartz’s departure.
• March 14: Yahoo initiates patent litigation against Facebook; Facebook responds with counterclaims.
• March: Workforce reduction affecting approximately two thousand employees.
• April: Declaration of comprehensive organizational restructuring plans.
• May 3: Revelations emerge regarding inaccuracies on CEO Thompson’s resume.
• May 13: Departure of Thompson and chairman Roy Bostock; Fred Amoroso assumes chairman role while Ross Levinsohn is interim CEO.
• May 21: Sale of half the Alibaba stake for $7.1 billion in cash and stock combined.
• June: Hiring of Michael Barrett, former Google executive, as chief revenue officer.
• July: Security breach at Yahoo! Voices compromises nearly half a million user accounts.
• July 6: Resolution reached in patent dispute with Facebook.
• July 16: Appointment of Marissa Mayer as CEO.
• July 30: Ross Levinsohn exits the company.
• September 18: Completion of initial Alibaba share buyback phase expected to generate $4.3 billion; plans announced to return $3 billion to shareholders.
• October 22: Ken Goldman replaces Tim Morse as CFO.
• October 15: Henrique De Castro brought on as chief operating officer.
• October 24: Acquisition of Stamped to strengthen mobile strategy efforts.
• December 4: Purchase of OnTheAir startup finalized.

2013

• January: Yahoo! completes the purchase of Snip.it, a startup specializing in social news.
• March 1: Yahoo! reveals upcoming product adjustments, which include discontinuing several services; Yahoo! Message Boards cease operations on April 1, with API update support ending April 16.
• March 25: Yahoo! acquires Summly, a mobile news application created by a 17-year-old developer.
• April 26: Chairman Fred Amoroso steps down, officially leaving the board by June.
• May 16: Yahoo! forms a partnership with Twitter to feature pertinent tweets within its homepage news feed.
• May 19: The board approves an all-cash acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1 billion; Tumblr’s founder David Karp retains significant ownership.
• May 20: Yahoo! unveils a redesigned Flickr offering one terabyte of free storage, promoted through an event in Times Square; the Tumblr acquisition is formally announced.
• May 26: Yahoo! places a bid between $600 million and $800 million to acquire Hulu, aiming to become the second-largest video platform following Google Video by combining audiences.
• June 20: Yahoo! transfers its official blog to Tumblr at "http://yahoo.tumblr.com/".
• June 28: Announces plans to discontinue twelve services, including Yahoo! Axis, RSS Alerts, and AltaVista.
• July 3: Acquires Xobni and appoints former CEO Jeff Bonforte as senior vice president overseeing communications products.
• July 6: Announces the shutdown of Astrid task management service effective August 5; dormant user accounts are made available for reuse on a first-come basis.
• July: Corporate board member Daniel Loeb sells shares at twice their purchase price, impacting company cash reserves.
• July: According to ComScore data, Yahoo!’s U.S. traffic surpasses that of Google.
• August 5: Initiates a month-long campaign featuring a temporary logo change to engage customers.
• August: Tumblr reveals documents concerning NSA email surveillance; Marissa Mayer appears in Vogue magazine; Yahoo! Groups launches the revamped NEO interface.
• November: Brian Pincus files a class-action lawsuit representing non-Yahoo users affected by intercepted emails.

2014

• January 3, 2014: Fox-IT detects a malicious Java exploit within Yahoo!’s advertising network impacting primarily users in Romania, France, and the UK; approximately 300,000 users were infected per hour at the time of discovery.
• January 2014: Henrique De Castro resigns from his position as Yahoo!’s chief operating officer (COO).
• February 11, 2014: Yahoo! acquires Wander, a social diary application, for over $10 million and integrates its team into the mobile and emerging products division based in New York City.
• February 13, 2014: Yahoo! purchases Distill, a startup focused on technical recruitment, to bolster its talent acquisition efforts.
• February 27, 2014: In response to surveillance disclosures, Yahoo! denies any knowledge of GCHQ and NSA intercepting webcam images from its users.
• July 11, 2014: Yahoo! acquires RayV, a video streaming platform, to enhance its media and video services portfolio.
• July 21, 2014: Announces acquisition of Flurry, a mobile advertising company, for several hundred million dollars to strengthen its mobile ad capabilities.
• August 2014: Acquires ClarityRay, an advertising startup aimed at improving ad relevance and overall user experience.

2015

• Yahoo! Japan revealed its intention to purchase the travel reservation platform Ikyu for an estimated $830 million.

2016

• July 25, 2016: Verizon reached an agreement to acquire Yahoo's core operating business for $4.8 billion.
• September 22, 2016: Yahoo! announced a security breach dating back to late 2014, impacting more than 500 million user accounts. This incident ranked among the largest breaches known at that time. Compromised information included users' names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, security questions and answers, as well as encrypted passwords. Attackers used forged web cookies to gain access without requiring passwords.
• December 14, 2016: Another breach was disclosed involving data from August 2013, affecting over one billion accounts and regarded as the largest breach in internet history. The stolen data resembled the earlier breach but featured weaker encryption on passwords.

2017

• January 9, 2017: Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer declared her intention to step down from Yahoo's board contingent on the completion of the Verizon acquisition. Following the transaction’s closure, Yahoo! would be rebranded as "Altaba."
• June 13, 2017: Verizon officially finalized its purchase of Yahoo!, merging its assets into the subsidiary Oath. As a result, Yahoo! ceased operating as an independent entity. CEO Mayer announced her resignation through her Tumblr account.

2018

• April 20: Yahoo divested its photo-sharing service Flickr, selling it to SmugMug.

2019

• January 8: Oath Inc., Yahoo’s parent company, underwent a rebranding and adopted the name Verizon Media Group.

2021

• April 6: Yahoo declared plans to shut down Yahoo Answers in May of the same year.
• May 3: Apollo Global Management agreed to purchase Verizon Media—which included Yahoo! and AOL—from Verizon for $5 billion. Upon completion of the deal, the company would be renamed Yahoo.
• May 4: After 16 years of operation, Yahoo Answers officially discontinued its service.
• September 1: Apollo Global Management completed the acquisition of Yahoo, previously known as Verizon Media.