Verizon and Apollo Global Management, Inc. announced that funds managed by affilliates of Apollo entered into an agreement to acquire Verizon Media for $5 billion. The telecom company will retain a 10% stake in the company, which will be known as Yahoo at close of the transaction. CEO Guru Gowrappan will continue to lead the organization. Yahoo is a brand that dates back to the early days of the consumer Internet in the 90s.
Gowrappan said on a company call that they are off the “training wheels” Verizon provided and now it is “time to make it 10x.” The executive also thanked the 10,000+ Verizon Media employees. He said partnerships with Verizon will continue, such as what they do with the sports leagues.
Verizon Media is comprised of brands such as Yahoo and AOL, as well as leading ad tech and media platform businesses. This deal will allow Verizon Media to “aggressively pursue growth areas and stands to benefit its employees, advertisers, publishing partners and nearly 900 million monthly active users worldwide.”
“We are excited to be joining forces with Apollo. The past two quarters of double-digit growth have demonstrated our ability to transform our media ecosystem. With Apollo’s sector expertise and strategic insight, Yahoo will be well positioned to capitalize on market opportunities, media and transaction experience and continue to grow our full stack digital advertising platform. This transition will help to accelerate our growth for the long- term success of the company.”
Guru Gowrappan, CEO, Verizon Media
“We are thrilled to help unlock the tremendous potential of Yahoo and its unparalleled collection of brands. We have enormous respect and admiration for the great work and progress that the entire organization has made over the last several years, and we look forward to working with Guru, his talented team, and our partners at Verizon to accelerate Yahoo’s growth in its next chapter.”
Reed Rayman, Private Equity Partner at Apollo
“Verizon Media has done an incredible job turning the business around over the past two and a half years and the growth potential is enormous. The next iteration requires full investment and the right resources. During the strategic review process, Apollo delivered the strongest vision and strategy for the next phase of Verizon Media. I have full confidence that Yahoo will take off in its new home.”
Hans Vestberg, CEO, Verizon
Verizon Media Fact Box
- Reported strong, diversified year-over-year revenue growth the past two quarters, driven by innovative ad offerings, consumer ecommerce, subscriptions, betting and strategic partnerships.
- Yahoo, one of the best recognized digital media brands in the world and the fourth most visited internet property globally, continues to evolve as a key destination for finance and news among Gen Z. This was most recently marked by Yahoo News becoming the fastest growing news organization on TikTok.
Recently, Verizon Media launched its Next-Gen Solutions suite. They describe it as a “first-to-market offering for advertisers and publishers independent of cookies or mobile app IDs for audience creation, buying or measurement.” This is in preparation for a cookie-less and indentity-less future. This new solution uses content and other real-time data signals like weather, location and device type to connect relevant advertising with consumers.
Verizon Media had already sold off HuffPost to BuzzFeed and Tumblr to WordPress in recent years. You may recall Verizon dubbing their media division “Oath” in the mid 2010s. That was under former Googler Tim Armstrong and a promise of connecting 1 billion+ users with advertising.
Bloomberg says Verizon Media was Q1 revenue of $1.9 billion, an increase of +12% YOY. The Financial Times notes that other telecom companies have sought success in content. For example, AT&T acquired Time Warner for $85.4 billion.
