Verizon Acquisition Of Yahoo Still Going Ahead As Planned

Image courtesy of Ray J./Morton Fox

Since the announcement of data breaches consisting of 1.5 billion Yahoo accounts, Yahoo-watchers have had one question: what’s going to happen to the former internet titan’s agreement to sell its internet operations to Verizon for a mere $4.8 billion? In its quarterly and annual earnings report today, Yahoo announced that the deal is still on. It’s just taking a while.

Revenue for the company’s “emerging businesses,” like mobile, video, and advertising, increased, and revenue from online search notably decreased. Fortunately, it’s those internet content businesses that Verizon wants, not necessarily the search business.

Those hacked accounts are a problem, though. “In addition to integration planning, our top priority continues to be enhancing security for our users,” CEO Marissa Mayer said in a statement. Sure, now it is.

While the Verizon deal is still on, it has been delayed. In today’s report, the company noted that the deal will close in the second quarter of 2017, not the first quarter as originally planned.

The deal will send Yahoo’s online businesses to Verizon to hang out with the remains of AOL, and keep the parts of the company that are financially valuable, including 15% of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and the company’s share of Yahoo Japan.

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