As anticipated, the long drawn out auction process for beleaguered Internet company Yahoo has been finalised after it accepted a US$4.8 billion offer from Verizon. The deal was announced overnight (Monday, US time) and includes Yahoo’s core Internet businesses and some real estate.
Verizon will take Yahoo’s jewels in the crown: its e-mail service, alog with news, finance and sports Web sites, and most importantly its advertising tools.
Little will be left of Yahoo, it seems, apart from a 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan and 15 percent of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, worth US$41 billion. Big money, certainly, but not much, considering Yahoo was worth $125 billion at its peak in January 2000.
Verizon plans to combine Yahoo’s operations with another Internet victim – AOL – that it acquired last year, using Yahoo’s extensive advertising technology to attract more advertisers and customers.
The final nail in Yahoo’s coffin will see the end of the four-year reign of CEO Marissa Mayer, who will be left, like the Game of Thrones’ Cersei Lanister in the Red Keep, with few assets – although no one is expecting her to take the Walk of Atonement.
Mayer will receive a severance package worth about $57 million, bringing her total cash and stock compensation during her time at Yahoo to around $218 million. Not bad pay for bringing a company to its knees.
