It was just recently speculated that Verizon Communications, a broadband telecommunications company, was set to announce its acquisition of Yahoo, which has put itself up for sale over its struggles in the past years. This has recently been confirmed, with Verizon recently announcing that it is indeed acquiring Yahoo, for a price of $4.83 billion.
Verizon will be able to take over Yahoo's core business, which spans from publishing, advertising, search, and news. However, it will not include Yahoo's cash, its shares in Alibaba Group Holdings, its shares in Yahoo Japan, Yahoo’s convertible notes, certain minority investments, and the company’s non-core patents. "These assets will continue to be held by Yahoo, which will change its name at closing and become a registered, publicly traded investment company. Yahoo will provide additional information about the investment company at a future date," according to a statement by Verizon.
The acquisition will add over a billion monthly active users to Verizon's customer base. It will also boost Verizon's AOL internet business, which it acquired over a year ago. Yahoo will be integrated under AOL's Marni Walden, EVP and President of the Product Innovation and New Businesses organization at Verizon.
Marissa Mayer, Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo, offered a few words regarding the acquisition. She states:
"Yahoo is a company that has changed the world, and will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL. The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo. This transaction also sets up a great opportunity for Yahoo to build further distribution and accelerate our work in mobile, video, native advertising and social."
Lastly, Mayer stated that it is "poetic" to be joining forces with AOL and Verizon as Yahoo enters a new chapter of its life. "We have a terrific, loyal, experienced and quality team, and I couldn’t be prouder of our achievements to date, including building our new lines of business to $1.6 billion in GAAP revenue in 2015. I’m excited to extend our momentum through this transaction," she said.
The transaction is expected to complete by the end of Q1 2017.
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