Verizon Sells Verizon Media (AOL & Yahoo) For $5B

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

Apollo Global Management has acquired Verizon Media (basically AOL and YAHOO) for USD 5 billion from Verizon Communications Inc..

Verizon spent approximately USD 9 billion buying AOL and Yahoo over a two year period beginning in 2015. In 2019, Verizon sold Tumblr in last year divested HuffPost to BuzzFeed late last year.

The properties Verizon is selling also include Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Mail and the tech blogs Engadget and TechCrunch.

Interestingly Verizon Media’s revenue rose 10% in the most recent quarter from the year before, to USD 1.9 billion. The division still has nearly 900 million monthly users, and generated USD 7 billion in revenue in 2020, according to Verizon and Apollo. Verizon Media also of course has an interest in teh our of home sector.

Verizon will receive USD 4.25 billion in cash, preferred interests of USD 750 million and keep a 10% minority stake in the new company, which will be called Yahoo.

Apollo senior partner David Sambur said that they are “big believers in the growth prospects of Yahoo”

The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year.


Leave a Reply