Around this year’s May, Verizon announced that it was selling the properties to Apollo Global Management, and today, Apollo Global Management announced that Apollo Funds have completed the acquisition of Yahoo from Verizon Media.
After acquiring Yahoo and AOL, formerly known as Verizon Media, the new owners just renamed it as simply “Yahoo.” Apollo Global Management said the deal is worth $5 billion, $4.25 billion cash, plus preferred interests of $750 million.
This is not just around half of the nearly $9 billion the telecom giant originally paid for them, but it is also a fraction of the hundreds of billions the two companies were worth at their peaks. Although, Verizon will be retaining 10% of the newly rebranded company.
For starters, In a bid to tap the growing mobile video and advertising market, Verizon acquired AOL for $4.4 billion in 2015, fast-forward to 2016, Verizon acquired Yahoo’s internet business for $4.83 billion and also rebranded Yahoo and AOL as “#TakeTheOath” in 2018.
However, around the end of 2018, the company implemented one of its biggest decision, which was also a flop, as they killed the name Oath in favor of “Verizon Media” before laying off over 40,000 employees and writing off over half of the division’s value.
During the change, the media divisions feature other properties like Yahoo Sports, Mail, Sports, Finance, interactive media brand, RYOT, TechCrunch, and Engadget. Apollo mentioned that Yahoo still boasts nearly 900 million monthly active users, which is incredible comparing the stakes.
Nevertheless, with the close of the transaction, Yahoo will now operate as a standalone company under Apollo Funds and will now be run by CEO Guru Gowrappan.
Guru Gowrappan, CEO, Yahoo, said:
This is a new era for Yahoo. The close of the deal heralds an exciting time of renewed opportunity for us as a standalone entity. We anticipate that the coming months and years will bring fresh growth and innovation for Yahoo as a business and a brand, and we look forward to creating that future with our new partners.
Apollo is a private equity firm that owns assets like crafts retailer Michaels, Chuck E. Cheese restaurants, and the Venetian resort in Las Vegas. Reed Rayman, Partner at Apollo also said:
We look forward to partnering with Yahoo’s talented employee base to build on the company’s strong momentum and position the new Yahoo for long-term success as a standalone consumer internet and digital media leader,” said“We couldn’t be more excited about this next chapter for Yahoo as we look to invest in growth across the business, including accelerating its customer-first offerings and commerce capabilities, expanding its reach and enhancing the daily user experience.
These aren’t the only selloffs from Verizon Media, the company started killing off its media department, production, and advertising in, 2019, where they sold Tumblr and Huffington Post last year.