Verizon Media (formerly Oath)

Verizon Media (formerly Oath) is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, which serves as an umbrella brand for digital content units, including AOL and Yahoo! Acquired in 2015 and 2016. Until January 1, 2019, it was called Oath Inc.

Offices

For November, 2019 the company has the double headquarters on Manhattan in New York (State of New York) and Sunnyvale (State of California) where earlier the headquarters of AOL and Yahoo were located. The company has offices in the USA, as well as in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Canada, China, Denmark, Israel, India, Ireland, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Sweden, South Korea and Japan.

Brands

As of 2019, Verizon Media manages the following^[1] digital brands]:

• AOL
• Autoblog
• Built By Girls
• Engadget
• Flurry
• HuffPost
• Kanvas
• MAKERS Women
• Rivals.com
• RYOT
• TechCrunch
• Verizon Digital Media Services
• Yahoo!

Internet Audience

2018: In the top 20 Internet giants by size of the Internet audience

Internet companies by audience size

History

2021: Sale of Yahoo and AOL for $5 billion

In early May 2021, Verizon Communications announced the sale of the media business to the investment company Apollo Global Management. The perimeter of the deal worth $5 billion included projects Yahoo, AOL, TechCrunch, Engadget, etc.

The business sold will be called Yahoo. Guru Gowrappan, who headed the Verizon Media Group in 2018, and before that was a top manager at Yahoo, will continue to lead it. Verizon will retain 10% of the future company.

Verizon sold Yahoo and AOL for $5 billion

It is planned to close the deal in the second half of 2021. Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon will first receive $4.25 billion, and the remaining amount will be paid in the form of various assets of the buying company.

Apollo believes that they will be able to turn the new company into a strong player in the field of digital media and advertising technologies, as more companies are moving into digital format. The media business brought Verizon revenue of $7 billion in 2020, which is 5.6% less than a year earlier, the telecom operator said in a statement.

Verizon, buying Yahoo and AOL, planned to create a large media holding, which was supposed to be an alternative platform for advertisers in the conditions of dominance in the market of giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Google. However, the plans could not be implemented, and Verizon already had to pay the debts of the media holding at the expense of other divisions of the corporation, Reuters notes.

The publication also reports that Verizon began to get rid of media assets after the company was headed by Hans Westberg. He replaced Lowell McAdam, who saw the future of Verizon in media and telecommunications projects. Westberg focused on building a telecommunications network, which is also evident from the way Verizon bought $52.9 billion in frequencies at the state auction earlier in 2021.^[2]

2019: Intention to reduce 7% of staff

In the second half of January 2019, Verizon Media announced its intention to reduce 7% of the staff (800 people). All this happened against the backdrop of the decision of Verizon management to save $10 billion in cash by 2021 and recognize the lesser value of the media segment.

2018: Renaming to Verizon Media

On November 5, 2018, during the reorganization of Oath Corporation, it was renamed Verizon Media. The change should enter into force on January 1, 2019 (as a result, the renaming took place on January 8). As noted, the rebranding occurred due to not the best reception of the name Oath and in order to stop rumors about the possibility of a separate company.

2017: Creating Oath

In May 2015, Verizon announced the acquisition of AOL for $4.4 billion. The deal was officially closed a month later. In 2016, Verizon announced the purchase for $4.8 billion of the main Internet business Yahoo!. Two months before the close of the transaction, Verizon announced the merger of Yahoo and AOL under the Oath brand. Since the close of the transaction on June 13, 2017, the newly created company has begun operations. The name of the company Oath (English Oath - oath, oath) implied its commitment to the digital media business.

Former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong received a similar post at Oath Inc.

After the merger, Oath cut 15% of Yahoo and AOL employees.

Notes