Verizon announced today that it will sell AOL and Yahoo to Global Management for $5 billion. The resulting company will be called Yahoo.
“We are excited to be joining forces with Apollo,” Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan said. “The past two quarters of double-digit growth have demonstrated our ability to transform our media ecosystem. With Apollo’s sector expertise and strategic insight, Yahoo will be well-positioned to capitalize on market opportunities, media, and transaction experience and continue to grow our full-stack digital advertising platform. This transition will help to accelerate our growth for the long-term success of the company.”
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This transaction marks an ignoble end for AOL, formerly called America Online and once one of the most powerful media brands in the world. But even for Yahoo, which has also bounced between several owners as its influence waned, this isn’t a particularly satisfying outcome. These two companies once dominated the Internet, after all—Microsoft offered to acquire Yahoo in 2008 for $44.6 billion—but today they are just vestigial afterthoughts.
Mr. Gowrappan will continue to run the new company, which will also include Verizon’s advertising business. And Verizon will retain a 10 percent stake in the new company.