Verizon agrees to sell Yahoo and AOL to private-equity firm for $5 billion

Enlarge / Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, on Wednesday, April 21, 2021. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

Verizon announced on Monday that it is selling Yahoo and AOL for $5 billion to private-equity firm Apollo Global Management. Verizon made the deal official just a few days after news reports said that Verizon had put Yahoo and AOL up for sale. The media division will be known just as "Yahoo" after the sale is completed later this year.

Verizon purchased AOL in 2015 for $4.4 billion and Yahoo in 2017 for $4.5 billion, even though the once-dominant Internet brands had fallen from prominence years before. Verizon's attempt to compete against Google and Facebook in the online advertising market didn't work out, leading to a series of layoffs and a goodwill impairment charge of about $4.6 billion.

Verizon tried to put a positive spin on the sale in today's press release, saying that the Yahoo/AOL division known as Verizon Media is "one of the world's premier global technology and media companies." Besides Yahoo and AOL, Verizon Media includes "leading ad tech and media platform businesses," Verizon said.

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