From $125 Billion To $4.83 Billion - Verizon Just Bought Yahoo

It has finally been made official, Verizon has closed a deal with Yahoo to acquisit it for $4.83 Billion in hard cash. This acquisition includes advertising, search, content and other areas which Yahoo has expertise in.

This move is the second biggest acquisition by Verizon which seeks to build alternative revenues other than Telecom services which experience a steady decline. Last year, they purchased America Online for $4.4 Billion to move into the media publishing industry as well as deal with potential advertisers upfront. Combine that with Yahoo's expertise as well as search traffic, cloud products, Verizon is looking to build a massive advertising networks which looks to compete with the likes of Google and Facebook.

Currently, Yahoo has more 1 Billion active users with more than 600 million coming from mobile. Furthermore they own a variety of brands as well as having shares in AliBaba group. But this share as well as 34 percent of Yahoo Japan isn't part of this deal. The stake of both of these combined is more than $9 Billion alone.

Here is an excerpt from the press release:

We expect the transaction to close between the end of Q4 2016 and the end of Q1 2017. During the time before close, we will be working closely with Marissa and the Yahoo leadership team to plan our future strategy based on the scale of our portfolio. At AOL, it is business as usual for Q3 and Q4 and you will be involved in building a robust plan for 2017 that includes the scale and team at Yahoo. As we progress in the closing cycle, we will be communicating often and we encourage you to ask questions and to share ideas.

We are looking at some very ambitious plans here. For more info, check out these memos from Tim Armstrong and Marissa Mayer. What are your thoughts on this acquisition?