News: Yahoo acquisition by Verizon finalized; Marissa Mayer exits

C-Suite

Yahoo acquisition by Verizon finalized; Marissa Mayer exits

With Yahoo being acquired by Verizon, Marissa Mayer becomes Yahoos last CEO
Yahoo acquisition by Verizon finalized; Marissa Mayer exits

The much publicized Verizon-Yahoo deal came through on Tuesday, and the $4.5 billion acquisition was finalized with Verizon taking over Yahoo’s internet properties, says a news report. As the deal closed, Marissa Mayer officially stepped down as the last CEO of Yahoo, paving way Tim Armstrong, former AOL CEO, to be in charge of a new entity.

As reported earlier, Mayer is expected to take home a severance package of $23 million. The initial deal of $4.8 billion was trimmed of $350 million owing to massive data breaches that were made public after the initial valuation. A new Verizon subsidiary, called Oath, is set to oversee Yahoo, and the several brands that Yahoo and AOL have acquired, like HuffPost, TechCrunch, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail, Flickr, and Tumblr, says the report. 

As a farewell message, Mayer made a post on Tumblr, with the title, “Nostalgia, Gratitude, and Optimism.” In the post, she said, “Given the inherent changes to my role, I’ll be leaving the company. However, I want all of you to know that I’m brimming with nostalgia, gratitude, and optimism.” She also thanked her teammates, the employees of the company, the founders and recounted the achievements by Yahoo in recent times. She signed off the highly personal note as “Yaho-o-oo!  Marissa.”

The closure of the deal that has seen many a turbulent times, is set to benefit Verizon and might as well propel the organization in the company of Google and Facebook, the report added.

"Now that the deal is closed, we are excited to set our focus on being the best company for consumer media, and the best partner to our advertising, content and publisher partners," Armstrong said in a statement.

Reuters also reported that Verizon has plans to cut down the present Yahoo workforce by nearly 2,000, and those employees could be let go as early as this week itself. However, another report says the number could be around 1,000.

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Topics: C-Suite, #MergersAndAcquisitions

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