Yahoo To Become Altaba After Verizon Completes Purchase Of Its Brand

Yahoo the brand will live on after Verizon buys it, but Yahoo the company plans to change its name. Verizon struck a deal to buy the beleaguered company’s U.S. assets last summer, and it plans to move forward with the deal. The internet service provider and mobile carrier agreed to pay $4.8 billion for the assets, and what’s left after the acquisition will change its name to Altaba.

Yahoo

Yahoo details what happens next

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, the digital ad firm clarified what will happen next as the deal moves forward. The agreement includes the operating businesses but excludes Yahoo’s foreign assets, patents and other properties. The company’s stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stay with it under the new name Altaba, which will be a publicly-traded investment firm. According to The Wall Street Journal, the name Altaba is believed to have come from combining the word “alternate” with Alibaba.

As had been widely expected, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer will exit upon the completion of the transaction, as will David Filo, who co-founded the company. Several other top executives will also be leaving, including Jane Shaw, Maynard Webb, Richard Hill and Eddy Hartenstein, the filing states. Altaba will cut the size of its board to five members, and the new chairman will be Eric Brandt, former CEO of Broadcom.

Verizon could still walk away

This week’s SEC filing is certainly good news for those who were betting that Verizon would actually complete the deal. As more and more problems beset Yahoo, some were wondering whether the mobile carrier would cancel it. It was reported last year that Verizon may have been considering backing away from the deal in the wake of the massive cyber-attack on the internet firm. Then a second breach occurred in December, affecting 1 billion Yahoo accounts.

However, it’s still possible that the company will back out of the purchase, even though Monday’s filing makes it seem much more likely that it will go through. The filing does state that Verizon can still cancel or renegotiate the terms of the purchase agreement as a result of the data breaches, which are seen as material events allowing the mobile carrier to change the terms.

Shares of Yahoo rose by as much as 2.2% to $42.25 during regular trading hours on Tuesday.

Disclosure: This article is NOT an investment recommendation, more

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