Yahoo shareholders okay US$4.48b Verizon deal

NEW YORK: Yahoo! Inc shareholders approved the US$4.48 billion (RM19.11 billion) sale of the firm’s main web properties to Verizon Communications Inc, clearing the last major hurdle for a deal announced almost a year ago.

The company said it expected to hand over its web assets to the telecommunications giant on June 13, according to a statement on Thursday.

The transaction had earlier been delayed by revelations of massive privacy breaches at Yahoo and a reduction in the price from US$4.8 billion.

The Internet pioneer’s chief executive officer Marissa Mayer agreed to the sale last year after a four-year turnaround effort failed to stem a slide in advertising revenue.

Yahoo will become part of a new Verizon unit called Oath that will include media content and digital services like email.

The division will also incorporate businesses Verizon added when it bought AOL for US$4.4 billion in 2015.

What remains of Yahoo after the sale will be renamed Altaba Inc and will be the most valuable parts of the current company: stakes in China’s Alibaba Group Holding Inc and Yahoo Japan that are worth more than US$40 billion.

Altaba, which will be led by current Yahoo director Thomas McInerney, will share ongoing legal responsibilities related to the security breaches.

Meanwhile, Verizon plans to cut 2,100 jobs after completing its acquisition of Yahoo’s Internet business and combining it with AOL, said a person familiar with the matter.

The firings would mostly be duplicated positions — engineering jobs were less likely to be affected, the source added.

The cuts, which amount to about 15 per cent of the combined workforce, would begin soon after the merger was completed, which could be as early as next week, he said. Bloomberg