Verizon to Buy Yahoo! for $4.8 Billion

By Jonathan R. Tung, Esq. on July 27, 2016 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Netscape, Yahoo, Google. Each of these names were iconic during their times -- some of them still are.

But Yahoo's time as a stand-alone company is finished. This new development was announced this week. Now, with $4.83B less in its coffers, Verizon is walking away with the spoils of acquisition war: Yahoo's one-billion monthly subscribers.

Verizon's Bid

When it was made clear that Yahoo was slated for the choppi -- er, auction block, Wall Street regulars started salivating and getting their dollars (and lawyers) ready. In the end, after much wrangling and struggling, Verizon is walking away with the prize that was once one of the most influential names in the internet game.

Asia or Bust

Google, largely seen by many as the dominant force in tech, still relies on core business flowing in from customers and subscribers within the Continental United States. But for Yahoo, the situation has been very grim. Over the last couple of years, the company's interests have been whittled down into a mere shadow of what it once was in its heyday. Now, besides die-hard converts dedicated to the Yahoo! Finance news-feed, much of Yahoo's bread and butter depends on its interests in Yahoo! Japan and its stake in China's Alibaba. The problem is that even these interests will be spun off into something not named Yahoo.

The Saga of a Dot-Com

It's too soon to tell what this means for Marissa Mayer, who joined the company amidst vows to bring it back. Kudos to Ms. Mayer who managed to bring the stock back from a sub $20 price back to a little over half of what Yahoo's price was at its dot-come peak. However, word is that Ms. Mayer is sticking it through to make sure that Yahoo gets the best possible outcome during this transition. Meanwhile, it's possible that the general counsel of Yahoo may receive $9 million in severance.

My, it's certainly a turn of events. At one point, Microsoft made an offer of $45 billion to purchase the company -- and that was during the market's unraveling. In business as in law, timing is everything.

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