Telecom goliath Verizon is reportedly looking to sell off some of its assets, including parts of Yahoo, as well as AOL, and news sites Techcrunch and Engadget. The deal could be worth up to $5 billion.
The company originally spent more than $9 billion to purchase AOL and Yahoo, six years ago and five years ago, respectively. Verizon’s current asking price for the two is just over half that price.
The cellular carrier, the largest in the US in terms of subscribers, bought Yahoo and AOL with the intention of resurrecting both brands. At the time, while both had already passed their heydays, they still boasted user bases of hundreds of millions of account holders.
Verizon reorganized the businesses in 2017 under former AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong, naming the combined division “Oath” with the expectation of going up against digital-advertising giants like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon is looking to abandon its own digital media efforts, shifting its focus to partnership deals.
WSJ says private equity firm Apollo Global Management is in talks to buy the Verizon assets for between $4 billion and $5 billion.
(Via AppleInsider)
