Yahoo, one of the internet’s first iconic companies and a popular search engine long before Google’s rise to prominence, is set to sell off the web portion of its business to Verizon for $4.8 billion.
With 1 billion people still visiting the site each month, Verizon will acquire assets like email, news, and financial services operated by the Sunnyvale, California-based company currently led by Marissa Mayer. Mobile applications will also be included in the purchase agreement, which was announced Monday morning by both companies. Verizon reportedly plans to integrate Yahoo with AOL, which it already owns.
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News of the expected deal comes after months of speculation over the corporation’s future. The company was created in 1995 by founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, who built out the website while getting their masters degrees at Stanford.
Yahoo quickly became popular, going public in 1996 and rising to become one of the most visited websites by the late 1990s. By 2000 the company reached a valuation of $125 billion, but its worth has declined ever since and is now valued at just $38 billion.
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Despite being one of the internet’s first major search engines, Yahoo’s popularity was eclipsed by Google in 2005. It still remains one of the top visited sites in the world.
This week’s purchase announcement pales in comparison to a bid the company rejected in 2008, when Microsoft made a $45 billion bid, according to Bloomberg.
The company went through a very public management shakeup in 2012 when Mayer was brought on, following a round of layoffs and exits of top staffers. Yahoo made a $1.1 billion gamble in 2013 when it purchased social media blogging site Tumblr. Stock prices are up since the former Google exec Mayer took over, but the company failed to regain prominence in the industry. Mayer will pocket an estimated $57 million in the deal, the New York Times reported.
Shares in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yahoo Japan Corp. will remain in Yahoo’s portfolio.
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