Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational technology company that focuses on media and online business. It is the second and current incarnation of the company, after

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

merged the original Yahoo! Inc. and

Altaba Altaba Inc. was a non-diversified, closed-end management investment company based in New York City that was formed from the remains of the first incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. after Verizon had acquired old Yahoo's Internet business. Verizon complet ...

with

AOL AOL (formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. The service traces its history to an online ...

in 2017. The resulting subsidiary entity was briefly called Oath Inc. In December 2018, Verizon announced it would

write-down A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

the combined value of its purchases of AOL and Yahoo! by $4.6 billion, roughly half; the company was renamed Verizon Media the following month in January 2019. On May 3, 2021, Verizon announced that 90 percent of the division would be acquired by American private equity firm

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American asset management firm that primarily invests in alternative assets. , the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capita ...

for roughly $5 billion, and would simply be known as Yahoo!; Verizon would retain a ten percent stake in the new group. The acquisition was completed on September 1, 2021.

History

Under Verizon (2017–2021)

The company is headquartered in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York. , the company employed about 10,350 people. A year after the completion of the AOL acquisition, Verizon announced a $4.8 billion deal for Yahoo!'s core Internet business, to invest in the Internet company's

search Searching may refer to: Music * "Searchin', Searchin", a 1957 song originally performed by The Coasters * Searching (China Black song), "Searching" (China Black song), a 1991 song by China Black * Searchin' (CeCe Peniston song), "Searchin" (C ...

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

emails Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving digital messages using electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the ...

and

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

products. Yahoo! announced in September and December 2016 two major

Internet security Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules ...

breaches affecting more than a billion customers. As a result, Verizon lowered its offer for Yahoo! by $350 million to $4.48 billion. The AOL deal and subsequent Yahoo! purchase were led by Verizon's management team, including Lowell McAdam (CEO), Marni Walden (EVP Product) and

Tim Armstrong Timothy Ross Armstrong (born November 25, 1965) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. Known for his distinctive voice, he is the singer/guitarist for the punk rock band Rancid (band), Rancid and hip hop/punk rock supergroup T ...

. Walden had been tasked with merging the two entities and delivering on the promise of moving Verizon from an analog to digital platforms business. Walden exited Verizon in 2017 and as later events revealed, the integration did not deliver the expected value. Two months before closing the deal for Yahoo!, Verizon announced it would place Yahoo! and AOL under an umbrella named Oath. The deal closed on June 13, 2017, and Oath was launched. Upon completion of the deal, Yahoo! CEO

Marissa Mayer Marissa Ann Mayer (; born May 30, 1975) is an American business executive and investor who served as President (corporate title), president and chief executive officer of Yahoo! from 2012 to 2017, when it was sold to Verizon. She was a long-tim ...

resigned. Yahoo! operations not acquired in the deal were renamed

, a holding company whose primary assets were its 15.5 percent stake in

Alibaba Group Alibaba Group Holding Limited, branded as Alibaba (), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in E-commerce in China, e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Founded on 28 June 1999 in Hangzho ...

and a 35.5 percent stake in

Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese web portal. It was the most-visited website in Japan, nearing monopolistic status. According to ''The Japan Times'', as of 2012, Yahoo! Japan had a footprint on the internet market in Japan. In terms of use as a search engine, ...

. After the merger, Oath cut fifteen percent of the Yahoo!-AOL workforce. In 2018, Altaba sold

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services to customers in a m ...

. In April 2018,

Helios and Matheson Analytics Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc. was a publicly traded data analytics company based in New York City, New York. The company became widely known during its final years for acquiring and subsequently operating MoviePass, which ultimately led to t ...

acquired the

Moviefone Moviefone is an American-based moving pictures listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, cinema information, film reviews, and advance tickets, as well as TV content and a comprehensive search tool that allows users ...

movie listings website from Oath, in consideration for which Verizon took a stake in Helios and Matheson. In April 2018, Verizon sold

Flickr Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...

SmugMug SmugMug is a paid image sharing, image hosting service, and online video platform on which users can upload photos and videos. The company also facilitates the sale of digital and print media for amateur and professional photographers. In 2018, ...

, for an undisclosed amount. In May 2018, Verizon and

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

agreed to terms that would preload four Oath

mobile apps A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

onto

Samsung Galaxy S9 The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are Android-based smartphones unveiled, manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics as part of the Galaxy S series. The devices were revealed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on 25 Februar ...

smartphones. The agreement includes Oath's Newsroom,

Yahoo! Sports Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from Stats Perform. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. ...

Yahoo! Finance Yahoo Finance is a media property that is part of the Yahoo network. It provides financial news, data and commentary including stock quotes, press releases, financial reports, and original content. It also offers online tools for personal fin ...

, and

go90 go90 was an American Internet television service and mobile app owned and operated by Verizon Communications. The service was positioned as a mobile-oriented "social entertainment platform" targeted primarily towards millennials, featuring a ...

mobile video apps (closed in July 2018), with integration of native Oath advertisements into both the Oath apps and Samsung's own Galaxy and Game Launcher apps. On September 12, 2018, it was announced that

K. Guru Gowrappan K. Guru Gowrappan was the President of Viasat Inc. He is the former CEO of Yahoo (2017–present), Yahoo and previously held leadership positions with Apollo Global Management, Alibaba Group, Zynga, Overture Services, Overture, and Quixey. Earl ...

would succeed Tim Armstrong as CEO, effective October 1. On December 3, 2018, the company declared a new set of rules for the Tumblr community that took effect December 17, 2018, banning "adult content". This move raised objections that it harms their LGBTQ community, sexual abuse survivors, sex workers, adult content blogs, and other bloggers. The move came after the Tumblr app was removed from the Apple App Store due to issues with child pornography, leading some to speculate that the ban may have been made to regain access to the App Store. In December 2018, Verizon announced that it was cutting 10% of Oath's workforce and would write down the value of the business by $4.6B. Verizon management blamed competitive pressures and that the business never achieved the anticipated benefits. The move wiped out all of the goodwill on the balance sheets that accompanied the acquisitions. Verizon Media logo

On January 8, 2019, Oath was renamed Verizon Media. In August 2019, Verizon sold

Automattic Automattic Inc. is an American global distributed company most notable for WordPress.com and its contributions to the WordPress system. The company was founded in 2005. Automattic's brands and products include WordPress.com, Akismet, Gra ...

, the owner of WordPress.com, for an undisclosed amount that was reportedly less than $3 million. In November 2020, Verizon sold

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

. in an all-stock deal, remaining minority shareholder in Buzzfeed.

As Yahoo! (2021–present)

On May 3, 2021, Verizon announced that the Verizon Media would be acquired by

for roughly $5 billion, and would simply be known as Yahoo! following the closure of the deal, with Verizon retaining a minor 10% stake in the new group. The acquisition was completed on September 1, 2021, with the company now known as Yahoo! On September 10, 2021,

Jim Lanzone James Lanzone (born January 20, 1971) is an American businessman and the CEO of Yahoo Inc. Previously, he was CEO of Tinder. He is also the former president and CEO of CBS Interactive, a top 10 Internet property that operated key websites includ ...

, who had been CEO of

Tinder Tinder is easily Combustibility and flammability, combustible material used to Firemaking, start a fire. Tinder is a finely divided, open material which will begin to glow under a shower of sparks. Air is gently wafted over the glowing tinder unt ...

, was named CEO of Yahoo!, succeeding Gowrappan.

Chief Executive Officers

Three chief executives have led the Yahoo! companies since 2017. They are: *

, CEO of Yahoo! Inc. (2021–present) * Guru Gowrappan, CEO of Oath Inc., Verizon Media, and Yahoo! (2018–2021) *

, CEO of Oath Inc. (2017–2018) For the CEOs of the "old" Yahoo!, see Yahoo! Inc. (1995–2017)#Chief Executive Officers.

Brands

Digital media brands under Yahoo! include: *

* ''

Engadget Engadget ( ) is a technology news, reviews and analysis website offering daily coverage of gadgets, consumer electronics, video games, gaming hardware, apps, social media, streaming, AI, space, robotics, electric vehicles and other potentially ...

'' * Makers *

Rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

(including

Yahoo! Mail ! Mail (also written as Yahoo Mail) is an email service offered by the American company Yahoo, Inc. The service is free for personal use, with an optional monthly fee for additional features. Business email was previously available with the Yah ...

Yahoo! News Yahoo News (stylized as Yahoo! News) is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo. The site was created by Yahoo software engineer Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such ...

Yahoo! Life Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

Yahoo! Entertainment Yahoo!, once one of the most popular web sites in the United States, is as of September 2021 a content sub-division of the namesake company Yahoo Inc., owned by Apollo Global Management (90%) and Verizon Communications (10%). It has offered a wide ...

Yahoo! Search Yahoo! Search is a search engine owned and operated by Yahoo!, using Microsoft Bing to power results. Originally, "Yahoo! Search" referred to a Yahoo!-provided interface that sent Web search query, queries to a searchable index of pages supple ...

, and Yahoo Fantasy)

Divested

(sold to

in 2018) *

(sold to Helios and Matheson in 2018) *

Polyvore Polyvore was a community-powered social commerce website headquartered in Mountain View, California. The company's virtual mood board function allowed community members to add products into a shared product index, and use them to create image c ...

(sold and merged into

SSENSE SSENSE ( pronounced: "essence") is a Canadian multi-brand retailer headquartered in Montreal, Canada specializing in the sale of designer fashion and high end streetwear. It was founded as an e-commerce platform in 2003 by three brothers: Rami, ...

in 2018) * MapQuest (sold to

System1 System1 is an American Internet advertising company. Formerly known as OpenMail, it was founded in 2013. It describes itself as operating a "Responsive Acquisition Marketing Platform", and cites privacy as one of its principal foci, although it ...

in 2019) *

(sold to WordPress.com owner

in 2019) * ''

'' (sold to

in 2020) *

Edgecast Edgecast, Inc. (formerly Edgio, formerly Verizon Digital Media Services, formerly Edgecast Networks, Inc) was a subsidiary of Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc. and provider of content delivery network (CDN) and video streaming services. ...

(sold and merged into

Edgio Edgio, Inc., formerly Limelight Networks, was an American company that provides a content delivery network (CDN) service, used for delivery of digital media content and software. Following a 2022 acquisition of Edgecast, the company re-brande ...

in 2022) *

Autoblog Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles, and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...

(sold to The Arena Group in 2024) *

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

(Sold to the private equity firm Regent in 2025) It had partial ownership of

's former parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., until its liquidation in 2020.

Discontinued

Alto Mail Alto Mail was a multi-service email client and proprietary email intelligence engine built to analyze and restructure incoming emails and calendar events by Oath Inc. It supported IMAP email providers like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud, and AOL M ...

(discontinued on December 10, 2017) *

AIM AIM or Aim may refer to: Computing * AIM alliance, an Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance * AIM (software), AOL Instant Messenger * Fortyfive, a Japanese software development company previously known as AIM Military * Abrams Integrated Management, an ...

(discontinued on December 15, 2017) *

(closed on July 31, 2018) *

Yahoo! Messenger Yahoo! Messenger (sometimes abbreviated Y!M) was an instant messaging client and associated protocol created and formerly operated by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo I ...

(discontinued on July 17, 2018) * Yahoo! Together (discontinued in April 2019) * Yahoo! Mobile (discontinued in August 2021)

References

External links

* {{Navboxes, list= {{Apollo Global Management {{Verizon {{Major Internet companies {{Tumblr navbox 2017 establishments in New York City 2021 mergers and acquisitions American companies established in 2017 Apollo Global Management companies Companies based in Manhattan Internet properties established in 2017 Joint ventures Mass media companies based in New York City Online mass media companies of the United States Re-established companies Verizon