One of the most prominent tech companies of the last years, Yahoo Inc., is about to be purchased by Verizon within the next months as the remaining brand will be renamed as “Altbaba.” This new brand will be a publicly-traded investment company, with most of its assets in Asia.
When Verizon confirmed the reports of its intention to buy Yahoo Inc., they also announced that the acquired brand would still be named Yahoo. When the trade was officialized, Verizon intended to buy Yahoo assets regarding only operating businesses. However, the purchase didn’t include the other Yahoo brands that will continue working, only that now under a different name.
In the last year, Yahoo suffered two major security data breaches that included one and a half billion of customer accounts harmed. Because of this reason, several experts are affirming that the deal, which until those events happened was entirely clear, might be amended or even canceled.
After that incident, Verizon executives established that while they were reviewing and investigating both data breaches, they still saw a financial gain in the Yahoo Inc. acquisition. The purchase is set to be for $4.8 billion, according to official information from Verizon.
This would be the second big web purchase from Verizon in just two years after the company acquired AOL for $4.4 billion in 2015.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer set to leave the company
Yahoo stated on Monday that the majority of its current executive board would resign after Verizon acquires it. The board will reduce itself to only five directors after CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo co-founder David Filo, Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Hill, Jane Shaw, and Maynard Webb leave the company in the next days.
“Either (executive) has indicated that he or she intends to resign from the Board effective upon the Closing, and that his or her intention to resign is not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices,” the Security and Exchange Commission filling from Yahoo stated.
The person that would be in charge of Yahoo’s administrative operations is Eric Brandt, as he would become CEO in the next days. Brandt started working in the company after leaving the Broadcom Corporation in March as Chief Financial Officer.
Other four executives will join Brandt on the director’s board to be set after the Verizon purchase, including Thomas McInerney, who was a member of the independent committee of Yahoo directors who ran the auction process in 2016.
Source: Arstechnica