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    Internet trailblazers Yahoo and AOL sold, again, for $5B

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1170 Views
    The Yahoo logo is displayed outside of offices in Santa Clara, Calif., in this Monday, April 18, 2011, file photo. Verizon is selling the segment of its business that includes Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm Apollo Global Management in a $5 billion deal. Verizon said Monday, May 3, 2021, that it will keep a 10% stake in the new company, which will be called Yahoo. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

    By Michelle Chapman & Tali Arbel, AP Business Writers

    --

    AOL and Yahoo are being sold again, this time to a private equity firm. 

    Wireless company Verizon will sell Verizon Media, which consists of the once-pioneering tech platforms, to Apollo Global Management in a $5 billion deal.

    Verizon said Monday that it will keep a 10% stake in the new company, which will be called Yahoo.

    Yahoo at the end of the last century was the face of the internet, preceding the behemoth tech platforms to follow, such as Google and Facebook. And AOL was the portal, bringing almost everyone who logged on during the internet's earliest days. 

    Verizon spent about $9 billion buying AOL and Yahoo over two years starting in 2015, hoping to jump-start a digital media business that would compete with Google and Facebook. It didn't work — those brands were already fading even then — as Google and Facebook and, increasingly, Amazon dominate the U.S. digital ad market. The year after buying Yahoo, Verizon wrote down the value of the combined operation, called "Oath," by roughly the value of the $4.5 billion it had spent on Yahoo. 

    Verizon has been shedding media assets as it refocuses on wireless, spending billions on licensing the airwaves needed for the next generation of faster mobile service, called 5G. It sold blogging site Tumblr in 2019 and HuffPost to BuzzFeed late last year. The digital media sector in recent years has been consolidating as companies seek profitability. 

    The properties Verizon is selling include Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail and the tech blogs Engadget and TechCrunch. Despite its difficulty competing with tech giants for ad dollars, leading to cost cuts and layoffs, Verizon Media's revenue rose 10% in the most recent quarter from the year before, to $1.9 billion.

    Financial firms have played an increasingly prominent role in traditional media as well in recent years, buying up newspaper chains and slashing costs. 

    Verizon will receive $4.25 billion in cash, preferred interests of $750 million and the minority stake. 

    The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year. 

    Shares of Verizon Communications Inc., based in New York, rose less than 1% Monday. 
     

    Tags:AOLApollo Global ManagementverizonVerizon MediaYahoo



    What will happen to CNBC and MSNBC when they no longer have a corporate connection to NBC News?

    Thursday, November 21, 2024
    MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow, left, Lawrence O'Donnell, center, and Chris Matthews take part in a panel discussion at the NBC Universal summer press tour, Aug. 2, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

    Comcast's corporate reorganization means that there will soon be two television networks with "NBC" in their name — CNBC and MSNBC — that will no longer have any corporate connection to NBC News. How that affects viewers of those networks, along with the people who work there, still needs to shake out. Their new corporate leader, Mark Lazarus, visited the set of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" as the plan was being announced on Wednesday and spoke to network staff members during a morning conference call to address concerns. Comcast is spinning off most of its cable networks, also including USA, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel, into a separate company. That recognizes how streaming is considered the future and the cable networks are a drag on the bottom line. In the space of a lifetime, the networks went from upstarts aside a legacy operation like NBC to profitable superstars to castoffs. Questions range from the simple to complex Lazarus, chairman of the NBC Universal Media Group, is becoming CEO of the newly-formed company of cable networks, temporarily dubbed "SpinCo." Cesar Conde, who as NBC Universal News Group chairman had oversight of CNBC and MSNBC, will lose those networks from his portfolio, yet remain in charge of NBC News, NBC News Now streaming, Telemundo and the news operations of the NBC-owned local stations. The presence of Lazarus and Anand Kini, who will be chief operating officer and chief financial officer of SpinCo, is a good sign for the new company, said Jessica Reif Ehrlich, research analyst for the Bank of America. "You can't dismiss it as getting rid of the crappy assets, because these are talented executives," she said. At MSNBC, questions about the future range from the simple — will it even keep its... Read More

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