Verizon announced on Monday that it will sell its media group to a private equity firm for $5 billion.
CNBC reports that while Verizon is selling media properties like Yahoo and AOL to Apollo Global Management, it will retain a 10 percent ownership stake of the new company, which will be rebranded as Yahoo.
Verizon had intended to turn its media properties into competitors for Google and Facebook, with Yahoo and AOL merged into one media division called Oath by former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. However, the venture ultimately failed to gain momentum and Armstrong left the company in 2018. CNBC notes that Guru Gowrappan, who took over after Armstrong left, will stay on under Apollo.
Verizon Selling Yahoo And AOL To Private Equity Firm Apollo Funds For $5 Billion
Verizon Media, the telecom giant’s media division comprising
Yahoo and
Apollo Funds for $5 billion.
Verizon said this morning that, per the terms of the transaction, it will receive $4.25 billion in cash, $750 million in preferred interest, and will maintain a 10% stake in the new company, which will be called
Yahoo and continue to be led by its current CEO,
Guru Gowrappan. The deal is set to close in the second half of this year.
Verizon Media is also home to popular web brands like
Techcruch and
Engadget, as well as a lucrative ad business though the move signals Verizon is throwing in the towel on its longstanding media ambitions. Verizon has also shed other media properties in recent months, selling
Verizon announced Monday it was selling faded internet stars Yahoo and AOL to a private equity firm for $5 billion, ending the media ambitions of the telecoms giant.
The deal with Apollo Global Management also includes the entire Verizon Media unit, including the advertising tech operations of the two brands.
Verizon will retain a 10 per cent stake in the company, which will continue to be led by chief executive Guru Gowrappan, the company said in a statement.
Verizon acquired Yahoo in 2017 for some $4.5 billion, ending the run for one of the storied brands of the early internet. It merged Yahoo into its division with AOL, another star of the early internet era, which Verizon acquired in 2015.
Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to sell its media division to Apollo Global Management Inc. for $5 billion, a move that will jettison once-dominant online brands like AOL and Yahoo.
The unit will be known as Yahoo after the close of the transaction, which is expected in the second half of this year, Verizon said in a statement Monday. Guru Gowrappan will remain chief executive officer of the media group. Verizon will keep a 10% stake in the business, it said, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.
With the sale, Verizon is unloading the remnants of an ambitious but distracting foray into online advertising. Last year, the telecom giant agreed to sell the HuffPost online news service to BuzzFeed Inc., and in 2019 it sold the blogging platform Tumblr.
Channels Television
Updated May 3, 2021
This combination of pictures shows the Yahoo logo is displayed in front of the Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and the AOL logo posted on a sign in front of the AOL Inc. offices in Palo Alto, California. PHOTO: JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP
Verizon announced on Monday it was selling faded internet stars Yahoo and AOL to a private equity firm for $5 billion, ending the online media ambitions of the telecoms giant.
The deal with Apollo Global Management also includes the entire Verizon Media unit, including the advertising tech operations of the two brands.