.svg) | |
 Yahoo! Inc. headquarters, 770 Broadway, New York City | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | |
| Predecessors | |
| Founded |
|
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, US |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Jim Lanzone (CEO) |
| Brands | |
| Services | |
| Owners |
|
Number of employees | 14,000 (2017)  |
| Subsidiaries | Flurry |
| ASN | |
| Website | www |
| Footnotes / references [1][2][3] | |
Yahoo Inc. (sometimes stylized as Yahoo! Inc.) is an American multinational technology company that focuses on media and online business. Its major products include Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Native, and Engadget.
After acquiring the company in 2017 for $4.48 billion, Verizon folded the company into a subsidiary called Oath Inc.[2][4][5] In December 2018, Verizon announced it would write-down the combined value of its purchases of AOL and Yahoo by $4.6 billion, roughly half;[6] the company was renamed Verizon Media the following month in January 2019.[7]
In September 2021, funds managed by Apollo Global Management acquired 90% of the company for roughly $5 billion; Verizon retained a 10% stake in the company.[8][9][10]
Yahoo Inc. was formed on February 8, 2006 as part of a corporate restructure.[11] It is organized in Delaware and is headquartered in Manhattan, New York.[12][13]
Jim Lanzone became CEO of Yahoo in 2021.[14]
History
Under Verizon (2017–2021)
A year after the completion of the AOL acquisition, Verizon announced a $4.8 billion deal to acquire Yahoo's core Internet business, to invest in the Internet company's search engine, news, finance, sports, video, emails and Tumblr products.[15] Yahoo announced in September and December 2016 two major Internet security breaches affecting more than a billion customers.[16] As a result, Verizon lowered its offer for Yahoo by $350 million to $4.48 billion.[17]
The AOL deal and subsequent Yahoo purchase were led by Verizon's management team, including Lowell McAdam (CEO), Marni Walden (EVP Product) and Tim Armstrong.[6] Walden had been tasked with merging the two entities and delivering on the promise of moving Verizon from an analog to digital platforms business.[18]
Two months before closing the deal for Yahoo, Verizon announced it would place Yahoo and AOL under an umbrella named Oath.[19] The deal closed on June 13, 2017, and Oath was launched.[20] Upon completion of the deal, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer resigned.[20] Yahoo operations not acquired in the deal were renamed Altaba, a holding company whose primary assets were its 15.5 percent stake in Alibaba Group and a 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo! Japan.[20] After the merger, Oath cut fifteen percent of the Yahoo-AOL workforce.[2] In 2018, Altaba sold Yahoo! Japan to SoftBank Group.
In April 2018, Helios and Matheson Analytics acquired the Moviefone movie listings website from Oath, in consideration for which Verizon took a stake in Helios and Matheson.[21][22] Also in April 2018, Verizon sold Flickr to SmugMug, for an undisclosed amount.[23]
In May 2018, Verizon and Samsung agreed to terms that would preload four Oath mobile apps onto Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphones.[24] The agreement includes Oath's Newsroom, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo! Finance, and go90 mobile video apps (closed in July 2018), with integration of native Oath advertisements into both the Oath apps and Samsung's own Galaxy and Game Launcher apps.[25][26]
On September 12, 2018, it was announced that K. Guru Gowrappan would succeed Tim Armstrong as CEO, effective October 1.[27]
On December 3, 2018, the company banned "adult content" from Tumblr effective December 17, 2018. The ban led to objections that it harms the LGBTQ community, sexual abuse survivors, sex workers, adult content blogs, and other bloggers.[28][29] The ban followed Apple's removal of the Tumblr app from the App Store because Apple objected to child pornography.[30] Some speculated Tumbler's ban was an attempt to regain access to the App Store.[31]
In December 2018, Verizon announced that it was cutting 10% of Oath's workforce[32] and would write down the value of the business by $4.6B. Verizon management blamed competitive pressures and that the business never achieved the anticipated benefits.[33] The move wiped out all of the goodwill on the balance sheets that accompanied the acquisitions.[6]
On January 8, 2019, Oath was renamed Verizon Media.[7] In August 2019, Verizon sold Tumblr to Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, for an undisclosed amount that was reportedly less than $3 million.[34] In November 2020, Verizon sold HuffPost to BuzzFeed.[35] in an all-stock deal, remaining minority shareholder in Buzzfeed.[36]
As of December 2019,[update] the company employed about 10,350 people.[37][38]
It reported $7.4 billion revenue in 2020.[39]
As Yahoo (2021–present)
On May 3, 2021, Verizon announced that the Verizon Media would be acquired by Apollo Global Management for roughly $5 billion, and would simply be known as Yahoo following the closure of the deal, with Verizon retaining a minor 10% stake in the new group.[9] The acquisition was completed on September 1, 2021, with the company now known as Yahoo[10] Also in May 2021, Yahoo shut down the Yahoo Answers service, which had been operational since 2005.[40]
On September 10, 2021, Jim Lanzone, who had been CEO of Tinder, was named CEO of Yahoo, succeeding Gowrappan.[14]
Yahoo acquired start-up The Factual in August 2022 to add algorithmically generated accuracy ratings to Yahoo News stories.[41] In October 2022, Yahoo announced it would buy nearly 25% of Taboola, becoming its largest shareholder.[42] The 30-year contract gave Taboola rights to sell native advertising across Yahoo's sites.[43]
In 2023, Yahoo introduced Backstage, a product allowing advertisers to purchase publisher inventory directly from Yahoo's demand-side platform (DSP) without needing a supply-side platform.[44] Within one year, 82% of advertisers buying through the Yahoo DSP had used Backstage.[45]
In April 2023, Yahoo acquired Wagr, a peer-to-peer sports betting app, integrating it into Yahoo Sports.[46] Yahoo also acquired CommonStock, a social platform for retail investors, in August 2023.[47]
Yahoo Creators, a publishing platform giving influencers a share of ad revenue, launched in March 2024.[48] By July 2025, the program included 135 creators.[49]
Yahoo acquired AI news tool Artifact in April 2024,[50] incorporating its technology into an updated version of the Yahoo News app that debuted two months later.[51]
In August 2025, with the possibility of regulators requiring the Google Chrome web browser to be sold, Yahoo Inc was one of three companies (alongside Perplexity and OpenAI) that were in talks to acquire Chrome.[52] However, a sale was not required by regulators and any deals talks were called off.[53]
In October 2025, Yahoo reached a $1.5 billion deal to sell AOL to the Italian conglomerate Bending Spoons. The purchase was quietly completed in January 2026.[54][55][56][57]
Brands
Digital media brands under Yahoo include:[58]
- Yahoo
- Yahoo! Sports
- Yahoo! Fantasy
- Yahoo! Finance
- Yahoo! Mail
- Yahoo! News
- Yahoo! Life
- Yahoo! Entertainment
- Yahoo! Search
- Engadget
- MAKERS
The company also owns the Yahoo Native advertising platform (formerly known as Yahoo! Advertising, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Yahoo! Gemini),[citation needed] and the Yahoo DSP demand side platform.[59]
Divested
- Flickr (sold to SmugMug in 2018)
- Moviefone (sold to Helios and Matheson in 2018)
- Polyvore (sold and merged into SSENSE in 2018)
- MapQuest (sold to System1 in 2019)
- Tumblr (sold to WordPress.com owner Automattic in 2019)[60]
- HuffPost (sold to BuzzFeed in 2020)[61]
- Edgecast (sold and merged into Edgio in 2022)
- Autoblog (sold to The Arena Group in 2024)[62]
- TechCrunch (sold to the private equity firm Regent LP in 2025)[63]
- Rivals (sold to the private equity firm On3.com in 2025)[64]
- AOL (sold to the technology conglomerate Bending Spoons in 2026)[65]
It had partial ownership of Moviefone's former parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics Inc., until its liquidation in 2020.
Discontinued
- Alto Mail (discontinued on December 10, 2017)[66]
- AIM (discontinued on December 15, 2017)
- go90 (closed on July 31, 2018)[67]
- Yahoo! Messenger (discontinued on July 17, 2018)
- Yahoo! Together (discontinued in April 2019)
- Yahoo Mobile (discontinued in August 2021)[68]
References
- ^ Hackett, Robert (August 3, 2016). "Read What Yahoo Is Telling Employees About the Verizon Deal". Fortune.com. Archived from the original on June 20, 2017. Retrieved July 9, 2017.
- ^ a b c Spangler, Todd (June 19, 2017). "Tim Armstrong Unveils Oath: AOL-Yahoo Combo Is as Big as Netflix and Looking to Expand". Variety. Archived from the original on September 12, 2017. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
- ^ Lomas, Natasha. "Latest round of Verizon layoffs at Oath affects <4% of staff globally". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2018.
- ^ Goel, Vindu (June 13, 2017). "Verizon Completes $4.48 Billion Purchase of Yahoo, Ending an Era". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 10, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
- ^ Chokshi, Niraj; Goel, Vindu (April 3, 2017). "Verizon Announces New Name Brand for AOL and Yahoo: Oath". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
- ^ a b c Spangler, Todd (December 11, 2018). "Verizon to Take $4.6 Billion Charge for Oath, Wiping Out Nearly All of Yahoo-AOL Unit's Goodwill Value". Variety. Archived from the original on December 18, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2018.
- ^ a b "Oath is now Verizon Media". Oath. January 7, 2019. Archived from the original on January 10, 2019. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
- ^ "Verizon Media to be acquired by Apollo Funds". May 3, 2021. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ a b Lee, Edmund; Hirsch, Lauren (May 2, 2021). "Verizon Near Deal to Sell Yahoo and AOL". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 2, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
- ^ a b "Yahoo is Yahoo once more after new owners complete acquisition". The Verge. September 2, 2021. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
- ^ "Department of State: Division of Corporations". Delaware.
- ^ "Office Locations | Our Company | Yahoo Inc". Yahoo, Inc.
- ^ Li, Roland (March 20, 2024). "Tech pioneer opens new downtown S.F. office once occupied by Macy's: 'Always long on the Bay'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ a b Sherman, Alex (September 10, 2021). "Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone will be next CEO of Yahoo following Apollo acquisition". CNBC. Archived from the original on September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
- ^ Goel, Vindu (July 25, 2016). "Verizon Announces $4.8 Billion Deal for Yahoo's Internet Business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
- ^ Goel, Vindu; Perlroth, Nicole (December 14, 2016). "Yahoo Says 1 Billion User Accounts Were Hacked". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 14, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
- ^ Fiegerman, Seth (February 21, 2017). "Verizon cuts Yahoo deal price by $350 million". CNN. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
- ^ O'Reilly, Lara (July 25, 2016). "This woman has been given the job of merging Yahoo with AOL". Business Insider. Archived from the original on August 6, 2020. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
- ^ Chokshi, Niraj; Goel, Vindu (April 3, 2017). "Verizon Announces New Name Brand for AOL and Yahoo: Oath". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ^ a b c Tharakan, Anya George; Shepardson, David (June 13, 2017). "Verizon closes Yahoo deal, Mayer steps down". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 13, 2018. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ^ Smith, Gerry (April 5, 2018). "MoviePass Acquires Moviefone to Bolster Film-a-Day Service". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on September 12, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
- ^ Carr, Flora (April 5, 2018). "MoviePass Just Bought Moviefone. Here's What It Means for Moviegoers". Fortune. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
- ^ Siegel, Rachel (August 13, 2019). "Tumblr once sold for $1.1 billion. The owner of WordPress just bought the site for a fraction of that". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
- ^ Bode, Karl (May 4, 2018). "Verizon Brings Its Oath, Yahoo Bloatware to Samsung Phones". DSLReports. Archived from the original on May 25, 2023. Retrieved May 25, 2023.
- ^ Gartenberg, Chaim (May 2, 2018). "Verizon Is Putting Oath Bloatware Like Go90 on Its Galaxy S9 Phones". The Verge. Archived from the original on May 6, 2018. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
- ^ Sloane, Garett (May 2, 2018). "Verizon Uses Mobile Might to Get Oath Apps Onto Samsung Phones". AdAge. Archived from the original on May 5, 2018. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ Fung, Brian (September 12, 2018). "Verizon Says Oath CEO Tim Armstrong Is Stepping Down". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
- ^ Ho, Vivian (December 3, 2018). "Tumblr's adult content ban dismays some users: 'It was a safe space'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
- ^ Kelly, Heather (December 3, 2018). "How Tumblr's adult content crackdown could alienate users". CNN Business. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
- ^ Porter, Jon (November 20, 2018). "Tumblr was removed from Apple's App Store over child pornography issues". The Verge. Archived from the original on December 6, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
- ^ Roettgers, Janko. "Tumblr to Ban All Adult Content". Nasdaq. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
- ^ Byers, Dylan (December 14, 2018). "Verizon plans to cut 10 percent of Oath staff". NBC News. Archived from the original on December 17, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2018.
- ^ Jackson, Abby (December 11, 2018). "Verizon will write down $4.6 billion in value of Oath, the unit that combined AOL and Yahoo assets". Business Insider. Archived from the original on December 12, 2018. Retrieved December 17, 2018.
- ^ "SmugMug Snaps Up Flickr Photo Service from Verizon's Oath". USA Today. April 20, 2018. Archived from the original on September 22, 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
- ^ Lee, Edmund; Hsu, Tiffany (November 19, 2020). "BuzzFeed to Acquire HuffPost From Verizon Media". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 11, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
- ^ Stephen, Bijan (November 19, 2020). "Verizon goes 180 on HuffPost, sells it to BuzzFeed". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 17, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
- ^ Flynn, Kerry (December 10, 2019). "Verizon Media plans to lay off 150 people this week". CNN. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019.
- ^ DiChristopher, Tom (June 23, 2015). "Verizon closes AOL acquisition". CNBC. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017.
- ^ "Yahoo | 2021 Fortune 500". Fortune. Archived from the original on April 12, 2022. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
- ^ Statt, Nick (April 5, 2021). "Yahoo Answers will be shut down forever on May 4th". The Verge. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ Fischer, Sara (September 6, 2022). "Exclusive: Yahoo buys The Factual to add news credibility ratings". Axios. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ "Yahoo to buy minority stake in Taboola in digital ad push". Reuters. November 28, 2022. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ Fischer, Sara (October 4, 2023). "Taboola says 30-year Yahoo deal, now live, will increase revenues by $1B annually". Axios. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ Perloff, Catherine (June 19, 2023). "Yahoo's SPO Push, Backstage, Gives Marketers Direct Access to Publishers Without the SSP". Adweek. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
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- ^ "Yahoo Bets on Wagr to Boost Its Gaming Offerings". PYMNTS.com. April 25, 2023. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ Fischer, Sara (August 23, 2023). "Exclusive: Yahoo acquires social investing platform CommonStock". Axios. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ Counts, Aisha (February 12, 2025). "Yahoo News Signs Up Influencers With Promise of Shared Advertising Sales". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ Guaglione, Alexander Lee, Sara (July 7, 2025). "Yahoo takes cues from platforms as it offers more editorial control to creators". Digiday. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Yahoo acquires Instagram co-founders' AI news platform Artifact". Reuters. April 2, 2024. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ Ashworth, Boone (June 13, 2024). "Artifact's DNA Lives on in Yahoo's Revamped AI-Powered News App". Wired. Retrieved September 19, 2025.
- ^ Feiner, Lauren (April 24, 2025). "Yahoo wants to buy Chrome". The Verge. Retrieved August 15, 2025.
- ^ bio, See full. "Judge Rules Google Can Keep Chrome but Must Stop Exclusive Search Deals". CNET. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
- ^ Fischer, Sara (October 29, 2025). "AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for roughly $1.5B". Axios. Retrieved October 29, 2025.
- ^ Martin, Iain (October 29, 2025). "AOL Has A New Italian Owner: Unicorn Startup Bending Spoons". Forbes. Retrieved November 6, 2025.
- ^ "Bending Spoons | Impossible. Maybe". bendingspoons.com. Retrieved February 21, 2026.
- ^ JoJack, Beth (February 20, 2026). "AOL to lay off 108 tied to Reston office". Virginia Business. Retrieved February 21, 2026.
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- ^ "Autoblog Relaunched by The Arena Group - The Arena Group". investors.thearenagroup.net. Archived from the original on March 6, 2025. Retrieved July 30, 2025.
- ^ "Yahoo is selling TechCrunch". March 21, 2025.
- ^ "Yahoo Sports Selling Rivals to On3 Ownership Group".
- ^ https://virginiabusiness.com/aol-to-lay-off-108-tied-to-reston-office/
- ^ Fingas, Jon (October 25, 2017). "Alto Mail is shutting down now that AOL is part of Oath". Engadget. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
- ^ Statt, Nick (June 28, 2018). "Verizon is shutting down its original video app Go90". The Verge. Archived from the original on January 27, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
- ^ Alleven, Monica (June 18, 2021). "Yahoo Mobile prepares for shutdown | Fierce Network". www.fierce-network.com. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
External links
Owned by Apollo Global Management (90%) and Verizon Communications (10%) | |||||||||||||||||
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- Yahoo!
- 2017 establishments in New York City
- 2021 mergers and acquisitions
- American companies established in 2017
- Apollo Global Management companies
- Companies based in Manhattan
- Internet properties established in 2017
- Joint ventures
- Mass media companies based in New York City
- Online mass media companies of the United States
- Re-established companies
- Verizon
