Let out your final “Yahoo!” yodels while you still can.
On Monday night, Yahoo announced in a regulatory filing that, following the closing of a $4.8 billion sale of its internet business to Verizon, the remaining company will change its name to “Altaba.” In addition, six of the company’s board members will step down after the sale, including CEO Marissa Mayer and co-founder David Filo.
The deal was first announced in July, and an explanation shared that summer by Mayer on her Tumblr stated the deal is expected to close at the end of the first quarter of 2017.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the company’s remaining assets post-deal will include Yahoo Japan, as well as its stake in the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, from which it derives its new name (a fusion of the words “alternative” and “Alibaba”).
The closing of the Verizon deal remains to be seen, however. With Yahoo having two hacking episodes in the past four years that exposed 1.5 billion user accounts in total, Verizon has the option to terminate or renegotiate the deal, according to terms of the filing. Should the deal be finalized, Mayer is expected to remain with the portion of Yahoo purchased by Verizon.
It is unclear what role Mayer would take after the sale, with the executive simply saying, “I’m planning to stay.”
Mayer’s departure from the board after her 2012 CEO appointment comes on the heels of years of criticism, from the company’s spinning plates approach to its core mail and streaming businesses to its purchase of Tumblr, as well as the 2013 and 2014 hacks. Mayer’s leadership style as a “micromanager” was often blamed for the company’s failure to reach early goals, and Yahoo insiders speculated in late 2015 that Mayer may have been looking to quit that December, according to Forbes.
Last week, Verizon’s vice president of product innovation and new businesses couldn’t speak on the upcoming deal with any certainty, the New York Times reported.
“I can’t sit here today and say with confidence one way or another because we still don’t know,” Marni Walden said.
