So long, Yahoo! The company is changing its name to Altaba
So long, Yahoo!
The company will be changing its name to Altaba Inc. – and six longtime directors will step down – after the main part of Yahoo's internet business is sold to Verizon, a regulatory filing says.
Once the $4.8 billion deal closes, the board members (including CEO Marissa Mayer and Yahoo cofounder David Filo) will resign and Yahoo will officially change its name to become Altaba, an investment company, Venture Beat says.
The name Altaba is a combination of "Alibaba" and "alternate," a source told the Wall Street Journal, with the publication noting Yahoo's remaining assets include the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Yahoo Japan.
But there's still some concern about whether this deal with Verizon will go through after Yahoo revealed twomassive hacks exposed user data on more than a billion accounts. The filing notes that Verizon can decide to bow out of the deal or renegotiate the terms because of the hacks.
The Wall Street Journal notes the part of Yahoo that's being sold to Verizon only makes up about 10 percent of its market value, while 61 percent of Yahoo's net worth comes from the company's stake in Alibaba and about 13 percent comes from Yahoo Japan.
Yahoo was once the leading search engine on the internet – it was so popular that in 1998 it had the chance to buy a company that would later become Google for $1 million, IGN says – but lost its relevance over the years, CNN Money reported.
Verizon's purchase of Yahoo is part of the telecom company's continued investments in digital content and advertising, and when the deal goes through Yahoo's web assets will be integrated with AOL, the Wall Street Journal said.