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Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present)

From Alfawiki
Yahoo! Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryTechnology, Digital media
Founded2017
Headquarters
Manhattan, New York
,
United States
Key people
Jim Lanzone (CEO)
Number of employees
10,350 (2019)

Yahoo! Inc. is a multinational American technology corporation focused on media and digital enterprises. This entity represents the company's second iteration, established after Verizon Communications combined the original Yahoo! Inc. (1995–2017) and Altaba with AOL in 2017. The newly merged organization was initially branded as Oath Inc.. In January 2019, following a $4.6 billion impairment charge announced by Verizon in December 2018—approximately half the acquisition cost of AOL and Yahoo!—the company was renamed Verizon Media.

On May 3, 2021, Verizon reached an agreement to divest 90% of this division to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for close to $5 billion, while maintaining a 10% ownership stake. Upon completion of the transaction on September 1, 2021, the business resumed operating under the Yahoo! brand.

Verizon Era (2017–2021)

Based in Manhattan, New York, the company had a workforce of roughly 10,350 employees as of December 2019.

One year after acquiring AOL, Verizon revealed a $4.8 billion acquisition plan for Yahoo!'s core Internet operations to enhance its portfolio in areas such as search, news, finance, sports, video content, email services, and Tumblr. Due to two significant security breaches impacting over one billion users, Verizon lowered its offer by $350 million, settling at $4.48 billion.

The acquisitions were overseen by Verizon leadership including CEO Lowell McAdam, EVP of Product Marni Walden, and Tim Armstrong. Walden spearheaded the integration of AOL and Yahoo! to pivot Verizon toward digital platforms but departed in 2017 amid difficulties with the merger process.

Two months prior to finalizing the Yahoo! acquisition, Verizon introduced Oath as the umbrella brand encompassing both Yahoo! and AOL. The acquisition was completed on June 13, 2017; subsequently, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer stepped down. Yahoo! assets not included in the deal were reorganized into Altaba, which held investments in Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan. Following the merger, Oath reduced its combined workforce by 15%, while Altaba later divested Yahoo! Japan to SoftBank.

In April 2018, Helios and Matheson Analytics purchased Moviefone from Oath; Verizon acquired a stake in Helios and Matheson as part of this transaction. That same month, Flickr was sold by Verizon to SmugMug.

By May 2018, Verizon collaborated with Samsung to pre-install four Oath mobile applications—Newsroom, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Finance, and go90—on Galaxy S9 devices. This partnership integrated native Oath advertisements within these apps and across Samsung’s platforms.

On September 12, 2018, K. Guru Gowrappan replaced Tim Armstrong as CEO of Oath.

In December 2018, following Tumblr's removal from the Apple App Store due to child pornography concerns, the company prohibited adult content on the platform—a decision that elicited criticism from multiple user groups. During that month, Verizon also reduced Oath’s workforce by 10% and recorded a $4.6 billion write-down attributed to market competition and unmet strategic goals, effectively eliminating goodwill from its AOL-Yahoo acquisitions.

Oath was rebranded as Verizon Media on January 8, 2019. Later that year in August, Verizon sold Tumblr to Automattic for reportedly less than $3 million. In November 2020, HuffPost was transferred to BuzzFeed through an all-stock transaction while Verizon retained a minority interest in BuzzFeed.

Under Yahoo! Ownership (2021–Present)

On May 3, 2021, Verizon declared it would sell Verizon Media to Apollo Global Management for approximately $5 billion. Following the completion of this transaction, the company was renamed Yahoo!, with Verizon maintaining a 10% ownership interest. The acquisition was officially completed on September 1, 2021, marking the return to the Yahoo! brand.

Subsequently, on September 10, 2021, Jim Lanzone, previously CEO of Tinder, was named CEO of Yahoo!, taking over from Guru Gowrappan.

Leadership

Since 2017, Yahoo! and its antecedent entities have been led by three chief executives:

For information on CEOs before 2017, refer to Yahoo! Inc. (1995–2017)#Chief Executive Officers.

Portfolio

Yahoo!'s digital media assets include:

Assets Divested

Yahoo! previously held a minority stake in Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., the former parent company of Moviefone, until its dissolution in 2020.

Services Discontinued

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