The End of an Era: It’s Time to Say Goodbye to Yahoo

Once a force on the World Wide Web, Yahoo is now coming to an end. After being acquired by Verizon in a $4.48 billion deal, Yahoo is on it’s way out. Out with the old, and in with the new, as they say, after two decades of this site being one of the biggest email service providers.

After this recent acquisition, Verizon announced that they plan to combine Yahoo’s operating business with AOL, which was purchased in 2015. This merger will form a new division called Oath, which will act as a division of Verizon. It will house over 50 media and technology brands. These will include household names such as HuffPost, Tech Crunch, and Tumblr. Because of Yahoo’s enormous reach, Verizon plans to leverage the audience to compete with sites like Facebook and Google in terms of advertising.

Read More: What is the ‘Yahoobleed’ Bug and How it Affects You

Unfortunately, this merger is accompanied by the possibility of a lot of layoffs. Verizon noted that they plan to layoff more than 2,000 employees, which will be the equivalent of 15 percent of the division’s new workforce. Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, will be resigning from the company, receiving a not-too-shabby $23 million severance package. Verizon wished her luck in her future endeavors, according to a company statement.

This news comes on the heels of Yahoo recently disclosing two huge security breaches, affecting more than a billion users. Yahoo was forced to cut their price tag to $350 million and to split the cost of legal liabilities with Verizon as a result of the breaches.

This also comes after Yahoo has spent years struggling to find relevance on the web. The company went through multiple CEOs, and attempted to regain popularity through large-scale acquisitions — it even passed up the chance to buy Facebook. Yahoo also hired personalities like Katie Couric in an attempt to reach a greater audience as well as a younger demographic.

They felt the need to compete with other sites and mobile apps, but sadly, their efforts did not do much to turn around Yahoo’s business. Many of those who worked for Yahoo in its earlier and more popular days have already moved on to other tech companies such as Slack, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn.

While it’s sad to see Yahoo come to an end, it’s exciting to see what will come next for the acquisition in the creation of Verizon’s new division, Oath. Stay tuned to see how things unfold and to enjoy what comes next in the world of technology!