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Verizon 'agrees $5bn Yahoo deal' Yahoo sold to US telecoms giant Verizon
(about 17 hours later)
US telecoms giant Verizon Communications is to buy Yahoo's search and advertising operations for $5bn (£3.8bn), according to media reports. US internet firm Yahoo will be sold to American telecoms firm Verizon Communications for nearly $5bn (£3.8bn) in cash.
The two firms were reported on Friday to be in exclusive talks over a possible deal. Yahoo will be combined with AOL, another faded internet star, which Verizon bought last year.
US internet firm Yahoo announced in February that it was looking at "strategic alternatives" for its core internet business. The deal does not include Yahoo's valuable stake in Chinese firm Alibaba.
Verizon declined to comment on the reports. The price tag for the deal is well below the $44bn Microsoft offered for Yahoo in 2008 or the $125bn it was worth during the dot.com boom.
A formal announcement is expected on Monday before US markets open for trading. Verizon said the deal for Yahoo's core internet business, which has more than a billion active users a month, would make it a global mobile media company.
Over the last few years Yahoo has struggled to keep up with the changing internet advertising landscape, with some analysts arguing that it has failed to remain relevant in many of its core markets. The end of Yahoo: Why Verizon spent big
Chief executive Marissa Mayer, who took the helm in 2012, has made little progress in returning the company to profit. Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo, said: "Yahoo is a company that has changed the world, and will continue to do so through this combination with Verizon and AOL."
'Unleash'
In an email to staff, Ms Mayer said she was "planning to stay", adding: "I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you. It's important to me to see Yahoo into its next chapter."
AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong said the deal was about "unleashing Yahoo's full potential", and creating a major player in mobile media.
Together they will have more than 25 brands, including Yahoo Mail, Flickr and Tumblr as well as AOL's Huffington Post and Techcrunch news sites.
Ms Mayer, who took the helm in 2012, has made little progress in returning the company to profit.
Last week the firm reported a $440m loss in the second quarter, but said the board had made "great progress on strategic alternatives".Last week the firm reported a $440m loss in the second quarter, but said the board had made "great progress on strategic alternatives".
The reported price tag for the deal is well below the firm's $125bn market value at the height of the dot.com boom. Verizon and Yahoo were reported on Friday to be in exclusive talks over a deal.
But BGC analyst Colin Gillis wrote recently: "We expect any offer in the range of $5-plus billion should be accepted by the Yahoo board to bring the process to a close."
Personalised ads
The US telecoms giant is expected to merge Yahoo with AOL, to create a digital group capable of taking on the likes of Google and Facebook.
Verizon bought AOL - another faded internet star -in a $4.4bn deal last year, which gave it ownership of the Huffington Post, Techcrunch, Engadget and other news sites.
Shortly afterwards, Verizon announced it would start combining data about its mobile network subscribers - which is tied to their handsets - with the tracking information already gathered by AOL's sites.
By doing so it said it could deliver more "personalised" ads.
Bid battle
A host of other firms were reported to be interested in buying Yahoo's core internet assets including AT&T, a consortium backed by legendary investor Warren Buffett and the owner of the Daily Mail.
In April, the firm shortlisted about 10 potential buyers.