The sale of Yahoo is complete: now the new mistress is the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, and Verizon can return to becoming a full-time internet service provider. The sale of Yahoo and other assets (including AOL) that made up the Verizon Media division was announced this May, and after the traditional green light from the authorities, the operation can be defined as closed (a bit late compared to expectations initials by the end of June).
Verizon bought AOL in 2015, and Yahoo in 2017. This second maneuver did not start under a lucky star, we can say: practically at the same time, the news of the data theft of practically all Yahoo accounts emerged, which occurred three years earlier and was deliberately concealed by the management of the company.
Verizon spent $ 4.4 billion on AOL, which controls famous international tech magazines such as Engadget and TechCrunch, among other things, and $ 4.5 billion on Yahoo; the sale of the entire Verizon Media division (formerly Oath) was completed for just $ 5 billion. However, Verizon’s entire media adventure also includes the sale of Tumblr, previously Yahoo, to WordPress for just $3 million, and the sale of the Huffington Post to BuzzFeed for a certain amount of shares.
Under the auspices of Apollo Global Management, Yahoo is once again an independent company. Leading it remains the former CEO Guru Gowrappan, who prophesies that in the coming months and years the platform will evolve and grow both as a company and as a brand.
