Le Monde | • Updated | By
End of the series. The US company Yahoo! announced on Monday 25 July, having reached an agreement with US operator Verizon telecommunications to sell its core business activities to $ 4.8 billion (€ 4.4 billion) . Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said in a statement that Yahoo’s activities would be incorporated in the same division as AOL bought in 2015 to “help accelerate our revenues in online advertising “.
the acquisition of Yahoo! Internet activities by the first US mobile operator ends several months of suspense. And seen above all the failure of Marissa Mayer, the former star employee Google hired in July 2012 to resume the Web pioneer.
Verizon and puts his hand on the many Yahoo! services (email, news, finance, etc.), on its search engine on its advertising network and its real estate. Without these assets, the company’s Sunnyvale (California) will it reduced to an empty shell
Read also:. Verizon: the extension of the area of the fight
Always publicly traded, it now merely to repay its shareholders dividends from its 15% stakes in Alibaba, the Chinese giant of online commerce, and 35.5% of Yahoo! Japan, its subsidiary Japanese. Eventually, the latter valued at about $ 9 billion before tax, could also be transferred.
Verizon enters another dimension
The Yahoo! brand , symbol of the first steps of the commercial Internet, will not disappear. It will be integrated with AOL, another former glory of the Web that Verizon acquired in 2015 for $ 4.4 billion. The new group will be led by Tim Armstrong, the current boss of AOL, past also by Google. M me Mayer and should step down, starting with a golden parachute estimated at over 50 million. Meanwhile, a social plan could accompany this acquisition, while Yahoo still has about 9000 employees.
This will allow Verizon to become the third player in online advertising in the United States, with an estimated market share of 5.2% this year by the firm eMarketer. The operator will still be well away from Google (38.7%) and Facebook (15%). But he hopes to reach a critical size enabling it to compete better, especially in the video. Objective:. Compensating for the stagnation of its turnover generated by mobile subscriptions
The strategy was triggered in 2015. By acquiring AOL, Verizon has recovered several major websites like the Huffington Post , TechCrunch and Engadget. In June 2015, the Group also acquired the majority of Microsoft’s advertising activities. It also launched its own video platform, dubbed go90. He spends from lot to promote his service and to recruit original content creators.
The acquisition of Yahoo! will however get it into another dimension. The portal is expected to generate $ 2.8 billion in advertising revenue this year, according to eMarketer, against only 1.4 billion for Verizon. Although in decline, Yahoo! services still attract a billion users per month. The operator will also get several advertising tools, which can then combine with those he already has. Including Bright-Roll, platform video advertising, and Flurry, the mobile data analysis service.
A long decline
Founded in 1994, Yahoo! was initially a huge directory that referenced the best places on the web. The site has since evolved as a portal, increasing the services to attract and retain users. But he was overtaken by the emergence of Google and Facebook, which upset the habits. Yahoo lost its status as gateway to the Web, which was worthless. In early 2000, just before the bursting of the Internet bubble, its market capitalization peaked at $ 125 billion.
the result will have been a long decline, marked by a succession of CEOs and the rejection by 2008, a bid of $ 45 billion issued by Microsoft. In July 2012 the company tries one last bet. She debauchery M me Mayer, a real star at Google. If she managed to stop the bleeding, the ruling has however not found the recipe for renewed growth. In 2015, net sales of Yahoo fell a further 7%.
It’s not for lack of trying. M me Mayer has indeed conducted numerous acquisitions and introduced new services. She tried to reorient the company towards video, mobile, online advertising and social networks. But the majority of its paris failed, just like Tumblr, the social network bought for $ 1.1 billion in 2013. Since then, its value was written down by $ 712 million.
The final blow occurred late 2015 when Yahoo dropped a proposed demerger of its stake in Alibaba, claimed by many investors. M me Mayer thought he had found a solution to avoid paying taxes, estimated at about $ 10 billion. But the conjuring trick devised ran into distrust of the US tax authorities. Once the transaction aside, the dismantling of Yahoo! was no longer a matter of months.
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