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Verizon America Online Businesses The Internet Yahoo!

Verizon Is Weighing a Sale of Yahoo, AOL (bloomberg.com) 88

Posted by BeauHD from the rocky-era dept.
According to Bloomberg, Verizon is considering selling AOL and Yahoo -- two once high-flying dot-com brands it purchased in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Bloomberg reports: Verizon Media could fetch as much as $5 billion [...]. The company is talking to Apollo Global Management about a deal, they said. It couldn't immediately be learned how a deal would be structured or if other suitors may emerge. No final decision has been made and Verizon could opt to keep the unit. The move comes as Verizon divests tertiary media assets while ramping up its focus on its wireless business and the the rollout of its 5G service. Last year, it agreed to sell the HuffPost online news service to BuzzFeed Inc. and it unloaded the blogging platform Tumblr in 2019. This divestiture would mark Verizon's final retreat from an expensive foray into online advertising, a strategy that never really took off.
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Verizon Is Weighing a Sale of Yahoo, AOL More

Verizon Is Weighing a Sale of Yahoo, AOL

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  • With epic losses. Leave it to Verizon to purchase at the peak and sell after the fire.

  • Is to take it into the barn and treat it like Old Yeller. It sounds mean but it is the most humane thing to do.

    • Is to take it into the barn and treat it like Old Yeller. It sounds mean but it is the most humane thing to do.

      (Google) "Told you. I knew he would go first."

      * takes $20 bill *

      (AOL) "Shut up, asshole."

    • Yahoo may be a dying dog, but AOL is the walking dead.

    • They should just become a paid mail service and get rid of everything else.

      I bet a lot of people would pay a bit for periodic or lifetime access.

      I would.

      Yahoo email user since the mid-1990s. It's my permanent address.

      Everything else they do is shit. Mail isn't that hard, but longevity is very important.

      • > Everything else they do is shit. Mail isn't that hard, but longevity is very important.

        Yahoo! has started doing a 72-96 hour block on mail coming from new IP's. If you spin up a new mail server, Yahoo! won't deliver your mail for a few days. And many people spin up new IP's frequently, for load, cost, and geodiversity. Nobody wants to pay extra to condition IP's just for Verizon being dumbasses.

        It's possible to imagine how this could help with spam malware but literally nobody else is doing this. If

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shanen ( 462549 )

          Thanks for that. Now I think I understand what's been wrong over there.

          But I'm just keeping the Yahoo account alive because too many old registrations point over there. I certainly wouldn't give it out as an email address for any serious purpose.

          Also, I guess it feels sort of amusing to keep rejecting the new terms of service two or three times a month. They're going to have to pry that acceptance click out of my cold dead mouse's paw? (I want a monkey's paw joke, but I can't write jokes. Obviously.)

      • Previously long time Yahoo mail user here as well.
        As soon as I saw Verizon bought them, I immediately started to looking for alternative e-mail providers. I still have a couple of throw-away accounts with them, but have been more than happy with a "real"/paid provider.
        I would hope whoever ends up with Yahoo's assets, keeps Yahoo Finance.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by kriston ( 7886 )

      You might be interested to learn that AOL's email system has actually been running on Yahoo's email system for the past several years.

  • How did we get here (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jmccue ( 834797 ) on Thursday April 29, 2021 @08:38PM (#61330236) Homepage

    I would like to know why on earth Verizon bought Yahoo and AOL ?

    And they are not the only company to do such things. One example that comes to mind is Compaq buying DEC and then HP doubles down on that stupid merger.

    These people who specializes in Acquisitions must have a crack Sales Dept. getting these companies do such dumb things.

    No one I know thought that was a good idea.

    • I would like to know why on earth Verizon bought Yahoo and AOL ?

      Dunno. IP? Patents? Real estate? IPv4 space? Hacked password collection? AOL keywords? There's probably a lot of odd reasons we don't think about, but maybe should considering these two have been around since the dial-up days.

      Patent Portfolio is what comes to mind when you think of IBM value today, not computers or typewriters.

      • "Patent Portfolio is what comes to mind when you think of IBM" - Those typewriter patents must be very valuable today.

        • "Patent Portfolio is what comes to mind when you think of IBM" - Those typewriter patents must be very valuable today.

          Damn ignorance always getting in the way...here, let me help you up:

          "IBM scientists and researchers received 9,130 U.S. patents in 2020, the most of any company, marking 28 consecutive years of IBM patent leadership."

          That ain't 9,000 typewriter patents...

      • I would like to know why on earth Verizon bought Yahoo and AOL ?

        Dunno. IP? Patents? Real estate? IPv4 space? Hacked password collection? AOL keywords?

        I can see this behind Compaq's purchase of DEC back in the day, but Yahoo/AOL? Those have been unproductive money pits for years. Let's think about it, what IP rights or patents could Yahoo/AOL possess (compared to, say any from among the FAANG?

        There's probably a lot of odd reasons we don't think about, but maybe should considering these two have been around since the dial-up days.

        Dial-up modems are still around. I see AOL like an undead Compuserve Zombie that refuses to die even after Darryl and Carol from TWD hit it in the head with a crossbow bolt, a hammer and a .20 gauge buckshot.

        Patent Portfolio is what comes to mind when you think of IBM value today, not computers or typewriters.

        Maybe. I just can't think what sort of relevant patent portfolio Yahoo/AOL could have today. They aren't Sun, DEC or Motorola (and they never have been.)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kriston ( 7886 )

        AOL's patent portfolio was already sold off a couple years before the Verizon acquisition.

    • Re:How did we get here (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gmack ( 197796 ) <gmackNO@SPAMinnerfire.net> on Thursday April 29, 2021 @09:44PM (#61330404) Homepage Journal

      They think it nets economy of scale. The HP/Compaq/DEC merger was a prime example. Someone thought they could get all of the customers, eliminate most of the product lines and R&D and the customers would tolerate that. So they EOL half of the PC lines, Half of the X86 based server lines, all platforms except x86 and Itanium. Big shock: The customers didn't stick around.

      • A lot of that was dumb, but cancelling all platforms but amd64 and Itanic made sense. Itanic turned out to be a flop but they didn't really have other options. HP's (etc.) own architectures cost too much to maintain and they couldn't afford to keep them going.

    • Correction - on crack sales department

    • The Verizon acquisitions were targeting value and trying to remain relevant if the winds shifted too much. They never should have gone through with Yahoo after the late revelations... at least not for any reasonable sum of money.

      DEC/Compaq was not the worst merger at the time— DEC was struggling and Compaq wanted to get into more of the high-value customers. Ironically, Compaq might not have needed DEC to meet their goals, based on their data center success that came from commodity hardware. HP was

    • Nobody really knows... especially Verizon staff.

    • Re:How did we get here (Score:5, Interesting)

      by flyingfsck ( 986395 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @02:26AM (#61331000)
      Finance.yahoo.com is still the best for stock market research. I usually have about 20 tabs open.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I found the Yahoo Finance app for android to be the best plain stock app.

        And Yahoo Finance allows comments/conversations which I like.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by bjb ( 3050 )

        Finance.yahoo.com is still the best for stock market research. I usually have about 20 tabs open.

        Not sure I would say it is the best for stock market research, but there are two things that I can note:

        1. 1. The web services API for Yahoo Finance is open and very widely used. I think Google shut theirs down at some point, but Yahoo is an open and relatively cheap solution.
        2. 2. Apple's stock programs (desktop and mobile) use Yahoo Finance, so that's billions of devices right there whether they realize they'

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They look at Google and see it is making boat loads of money. They look at Yahoo and think "hey, that's a bit like Google, if we just market it and make it default on our shitty platform it will become just like Google and we will be getting boat loads of cash!"

      I see this happen time and time again in business. The people in charge don't understand the market or why something is popular, they just think they can get a slice of it by offering something superficially similar.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by k6mfw ( 1182893 )

      No one I know thought that was a good idea.

      I wonder if there were other factors which we don't see in the news. Or it was a good idea but certain other factors like management processes or hiring strategies that caused a good idea to go off the rails.

    • As near as I can tell Verizon wanted to compete with other Internet giants like Google and Facebook. Obviously they couldn't just buy those companies. So they looked around and saw there were several dead companies that were similar available. And then they stitched those corpses together into a horrific flesh golem.

    • "an expensive foray into online advertising"

      Which raises the question of why they bought Huffington as part of said foray.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Grandma who refuses to part with her 2001 era E-machine desktop and does not even know how to switch away from dialup?

    This is a serious question.

    • No one needs to be using AOL. They bill accounts automatically. Some fraction of one-time users still have active accounts that they can bill, where checks are still being deposited.

      This is the AOL business model now. Eventually the former users will be declared dead, the checks will stop being deposited, and the accounts will be closed.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kriston ( 7886 )

        Remember the AOL telephone services? Of course nobody does. A decade after they were "discontinued" AOL was still raking in millions per month from those services.

    • Unfortunately, too many. And no, they don't read Slashdot.

    • I have 2 free e-mail accounts. One of them is @yahoo.com, and the other is @netscape.net, which has been a redirect to @aol.com for yonks.
      Wherever ownership goes, I just hope I can still use IMAP on both of those accounts.

    • How many years before we ask the same thing about Facebook? I can see Twitter maybe having more potential longevity, but Facebook could easily die off as people move elsewhere as quickly as people moved from tapes to CDs or from CDs to MP3s.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      I know a few people still using @aol.com address. They said they don't want to let go of their old e-mail addresses. :/

    • "Grandma who refuses to part with her 2001 era E-machine" - I think it time for a certain grand child to buy his grandma an Apple Macbook (Seriously, Apple accessibility features are the best for the older generation).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by k6mfw ( 1182893 )
      Most likely because many people been using the same email address including those with yahoo address for years. Or using them for a mailing list or forum like me. At times they are convenient to keep separate from a "real" email address (some of these lists get pretty testy at times).

  • Maybe now Verizon will actually take responsibility for email client support for their FiOS and DSL customers, instead of foisting it off on their hapless AOL and Yahoo lackeys, who can offer little more than finger-pointing toward FAQ web pages. (unless, of course, they couldn't care less and want them to to just use Gmail like everybody else...?)

    • Uh, Yahoo! Mail and AOL.com/AIM.com e-mail still exist as free services over the web... with a lot less intrusive ads than GMail.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kriston ( 7886 )

        It might surprise you that AOL mail has been hosted on Yahoo's mail platform starting a few years ago.

        It's a shame because AOL's original mail system up until the mid-2000s was bulletproof.

  • Hi Boy, I feel so boring today If u wanna fuck me tonight just visit my profile! ==>> bit.do/user6731
  • So, if I want to buy Yahoo, how much Verizon is willing to pay me?

  • 1-2 billion for yahoo and AOL.

    Verizon/Yahoo hasn't done anything other than shut down services since the purchase.

    • Verizon was offended by the IM products because they competed with SMS. Verizon was also to blame for CNET's long form daily podcasts like Buzz Out Loud and The 404 being canceled because they insisted they were clogging the FIOS system.

      Seems like the consolidation of the carriers down to 3 needs to be reworked... and T-Mobile/Sprint doesn't own much landlines to consumers.

    • Re:I'd be pretty surprised if they get more than (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rudy_wayne ( 414635 ) on Thursday April 29, 2021 @10:22PM (#61330506)

      1-2 billion for yahoo and AOL.

      Verizon/Yahoo hasn't done anything other than shut down services since the purchase.

      Shutting down things that they never should have bought n the first place.

      Seriously. How do you run a compnay like this? Not just Verizon/Yahoo/AOL but many other companies as well. Spending huge amounts of money to buy companies that are useless crap and then selling them at a big loss a few years later. Who the fuck approves this shit?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sconeu ( 64226 )

      Except for one thing...

      Yahoo hosts AT&T's email. I wonder how much they get on rent-seeking for that.

  • With AOL Platform, AIM, Y!IM, the Yahoo! Finance data system, and other things already shut down... how did that create value? Seems like they have to sell at a loss.

  • For both.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 )

      I'll give you 21 but I only want the domain names so I can point them to pornhub.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

        You might make money on that.
        I wondered what good they were when the groups they were hosting they killed. Like pour gasoline, diesel on that wooden bridge and light her up killed. Last message I have from them was for the most part a fuck you message. We're deleting your account for non-use. Sure, knock yourself out. Please delete it.

  • I'm embarrassed to admit that once upon a time, I scrolled and clicked hoping to find an answer to my search on Yahoo. Also, I admit that I knew someone who used AOL, but that is less embarrassing, because she was an old lady and didn't know any better.

  • Which I think it pretty generous, to be frank.

  • Apollo Global Management is the company whose CEO stepped down in March after it was discovered he paid Jeffrey Epstein nearly $160 million for "personal tax advice" for a period of five years, through 2017. They're a private equity firm. They will take Yahoo & AOL, and make them suck even worse than they already do - and charge users new fees for the privilege.
  • The fact that Verizon can blow that much money on these worthless companies, then sell them at a massive loss years later - and not only remain in business but continue to make ridiculous profits - is insane.
    • As expensive as this fiasco might be, there are a lot more M&As out there that are productive. For every Yahoo/AOL screw up, there are several Berkshire Hattaways moving along pretty well.
    • How does that indicate "Capitalism is broken"? They aren't actually worthless companies, just not worth what they were. And they didn't represent that big a slice of Verizon's overall business, which is doing more than well enough to cover the loss.

      You may as well ask someone how they could afford to pay for Netflix when they are paying off a car and a home. Because they make more in a month than the cost of their car and mortgage payments!

  • Well, that's where all our stimulus money goes, asset price inflation. But seriously, they are looking to sell Verizon Media, which includes such powerhouses as Tech Crunch and In the Know ("the best of youth culture in 90 seconds"). So you can see how that might be worth $5 billion.

  • OMG I'm tired of hearing about Yahoo and AOL. Ever since the days of unending AOL CDs I've hoped it would just die.

    Okay - new idea: start a crowdfunding campaign to buy both properties. Then assign all IP to some friendly holding company (FSF? Wikipedia?) and just let them die already.

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