It’s official: Verizon has completed its purchase of Yahoo for a price tag of $4.48 billion. The long-awaited acquisition will combine Yahoo’s AOL assets into a subsidiary called Oath, which includes 50 media brands — including AOL.com, HuffPost, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Mail and TechCrunch — and one billion people globally.
Verizon had agreed to pay $4.8 billion for Yahoo in July 2016, but the price was reduced to $4.48 billion following news of two data breaches — one involving 500 million customer accounts, another more than one billion.
In April, USA Today reported that Tim Armstrong, then-CEO of AOL and now CEO of Oath, stressed that the brands within the new company would stay the same.
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“We’re building the future of brands using powerful technology, trusted content and differentiated data,” said Armstrong in a statement. “Now that the deal is closed, we are excited to set our focus on being the best company for consumer media, and the best partner to our advertising, content and publisher partners.”
As expected, the merger also means that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has resigned from the company, given “inherent changes to her role.” According to an earlier company filing, she will receive a $23 million severance package upon her departure.
“While reaching this moment has certainly been a long road traveled, it marks the end of an era for Yahoo, as well as the beginning of a new chapter — it’s an emotional time for all of us,” she wrote in the email she titled: Nostalgia, Gratitude, and Optimism. “Looking back on my time at Yahoo, we have confronted seemingly insurmountable business challenges, along with many surprise twists and turns. I’ve seen our teams navigate these hurdles and mountains in ways that have not only made Yahoo a better company, but also made all of us far stronger.”
