Verizon to sell Yahoo and AOL for $5 billion to Apollo

On Monday, Verizon Communications Inc said that it agreed to sell its media unit, which includes Yahoo and AOL, for $ 5 billion to Apollo Global Management Inc, as it seeks to divest its digital media business.

Verizon has tried its best to grow its media business, declaring it almost worthless with a payback of $ 4.6 billion in 2018. Big players like Facebook and Google have taken the digital advertising market by storm.

Verizon will obtain $ 4.25 billion in cash, preferential interest of $ 750 million and will retain a 10% stake in Verizon Media as part of the terms of the agreement.

With the sale of Yahoo and AOL, Verizon noted that it is no longer interested in the media, unlike its rivals. AT&T is still trying to make WarnerMedia a streaming competitor to Netflix and Disney, even as it struggles with a lot of debt over its media acquisitions. Comcast, another Internet provider, is also in the media business with NBCUniversal.

The company will be called Yahoo when the deal closes, which is expected in the second half of 2021, the company confirmed.

Verizon Media's portfolio includes online brands like TechCrunch, Makers, Ryot and Flurry as per its website. It reported revenue of $ 1.9 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

Back in 2017, Verizon bought Yahoo's internet properties for approx. $ 4.48 billion, betting that its more than 1 billion users would be a fertile audience for online ads. It acquired the AOL email service in 2015 for $ 4.4 billion.