American telecom giant, Verizon has completed its acquisition of the operating business of Yahoo for $4.48 billion. Yahoo is the main internet pioneer. With the acquisition, Verizon, which owns AOL, will create what the Telco boasts is a global digital-media powerhouse that reaches more than 1 billion consumers.
The merger of AOL and Yahoo will be called Oath, comprising of more than 50 media and technology brands. The CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer is expected to resign, while Tim Armstrong, former CEO of AOL is now the CEO of Oath, which is part of Verizon’s Media and Telematics division.
“We’re building the future of brands using powerful technology, trusted content and differentiated data,” Armstrong said in a statement.
“We have dominating consumer brands in news, sports, finance, tech, and entertainment and lifestyle coupled with our market-leading advertising technology platforms. 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.” He added.
Oath includes a number of other digital media operations including HuffPost, formerly known as the Huffington Post.
Verizon has made no indication of how it will use the Yahoo brand — which is used by over a billion people worldwide — but indicated it is keeping the names Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail and more.
Some reports have said about 15% of the workforce would be eliminated as a result of the merger, but statements from Yahoo and Verizon on Tuesday made no mention of any cuts. Yahoo’s sale caps a long decline from when it had a peak market value of some $125 billion in 2000.
The original Yahoo group now becomes a holding company with stakes in Chinese internet giant Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.
Mayer, who was unable to stem the decline of the iconic Silicon Valley Company, is getting a departure package worth an estimated $200 million, according to regulatory filings.
