Verizon (News - Alert) announced the company would be selling its majority stake in both AOL and Yahoo, officially ending the company’s presence in the media space.
Verizon purchased both companies in a relatively short period of time, with the intention of becoming a major player against other tech companies like Google and Facebook, both of which have diversified their brands by expanding into media. AOL (News - Alert) and Yahoo were purchased for roughly 4 billion each, but Verizon executives admit the purchase turned out to be less successful than anticipated. Both companies will now be owned and operated by private equity firm Apollo Global Management after signing an agreement for $5 billion.
"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," Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan said in an official statement from the company.
As a part of the deal, Verizon will retain a 10% stake in the new company, and the Verizon Media Group name will be changed to simply Yahoo. Now that Verizon has essentially moved out of the media industry, the company has commented that it will now "aggressively pursue growth areas and stands to benefit its employees, advertisers, publishing partners and nearly 900 million monthly active users worldwide." The deal is expected to close towards the end of 2021.