Verizon buys Yahoo’s search and advertising operations
US telecoms company, Verizon Communications has bought Yahoo’s search and advertising operations for a deal of around $4.8bn. The telecoms company will now own Yahoo’s core Internet businesses of over a billion active users a month, to become a global mobile media company.
“Verizon is progressing its transformation to become a cross-screen advertising and media group,” says Juan Jose Rio, Partner, Advisory and Investment group, Delta Partners. “Through Yahoo, Verizon is harnessing a significant number of assets, including new advertising capabilities, but most relevant is its fixed and mobile advertising properties in the search, communication and digital content space. Whilst it remains to be seen what exactly Verizon will do with this latest acquisition and all its underlying assets, including those beyond the US borders, this may lead to similar deals and acquisitions between telcos and digital companies. More deals of a similar nature may be forged in the future, with telcos looking increasingly to leverage their connectivity and data assets to become powerful digital companies.”