Verizon Communications Inc has taken over Yahoo Inc, completing a US$4.5 billion deal that is to usher in a new management team to attempt to wring more advertising revenue from one of the Internet’s best-known brands.
Tuesday’s closure of the sale ends Yahoo’s 21-year history as a publicly traded company.
It also ends the nearly five-year reign of Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer, who is not joining Verizon. She is to walk away from Yahoo with a compensation package worth about US$125 million, including her severance pay and stock awards that are to be fully vested with the deal’s completion.
Yahoo’s e-mail and other digital services such as sports, finance and news are to be run by Tim Armstrong, who has been running AOL Inc since Verizon bought that company for US$4.4 billion two years ago.
Armstrong is now to be chief executive of a new Verizon subsidiary called Oath, which is to consist of Yahoo and various AOL services.
About 2,000 Yahoo and AOL workers are expected to lose their jobs as Verizon trims expenses and eliminates overlapping positions.
“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,” Armstrong said.
Verizon is not getting Yahoo’s prized stakes in two Asian Internet companies, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and Yahoo Japan.
Those are to belong to a newly formed company called Altaba Inc, which is also to inherit Yahoo’s US$8 billion in cash and any money that might have to be paid in various shareholder lawsuits filed against Yahoo leading up to the sale.
Altaba’s stock is to begin trading next week. Yahoo’s stock is to trade through tomorrow.
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