Yahoo inks $4.8bn deal with Verizon for core business

PTI

Yahoo will be bought by American telecom giant Verizon Communications for nearly $5 billion (about Rs.32,358 crore) in cash, ending a two-decade run as an independent company for the Internet pioneer.

Yahoo will be combined with AOL, another faded Internet star that Verizon bought last year. Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam said this will create "a top global mobile media company, and help accelerate our revenue stream in digital advertising."

The acquisition, expected to close in early 2017, pending shareholder and regulatory approval will exclude Yahoo's cash, certain patent holdings, as well as its share in China's Alibaba Group and stake in Yahoo Japan.

Yahoo, which was the entry door to the Internet for an early generation of web users, has been coping with years of decline and struggled to keep up with rivals like Google and Facebook.

Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer said the company, that changed the world, will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL.

On a conference call, she said the agreement is "an exceptional outcome for Yahoo shareholders" and that Verizon was chosen because it "believed in us the most".