I can’t find information on how Apollo Group runs it’s PE portfolio. I assume they will eliminate costs and merge businesses where it makes sense. The press release mentions brick and mortar opportunities but Apollo doesn’t own major brands outside of Sprouts and GNC. It sounds like another miss for Yahoo again.
Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
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Re: Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
#12From the article: …“it agreed to sell Yahoo and AOL to the private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion.” They apparently paid $4.4 billion for AOL, and Yahoo they got for $4.48 billion. I have to say: only losing $5 billion while handling the decaying corpses of AOL and Yahoo is, weirdly, kind of a triumph. These are cursed properties, and bring only despair. Though I’m surprised they didn’t try to ke…
AOL has adtech advertisers setup with some large customer base probably 3rd or 4th to Google/Facebook. It also owns publishers like HuffPost, TechCrunch etc.
Well when your large customer base leads you to a $5 billion writedown and a public confession that Google and Facebook are eating your lunch…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/12/verizon...
…color me skeptical that there’s a bright future there.
Re: Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
#13This was never in doubt. Everyone knew this was going to happen. Are non tech companies really that foolish to think they can salvage a brand that was relevant 10 years ago and revive it? I have a feeling this is some kind of tax avoidance scheme. Knowing nothing about taxes and accounting I will let knowledgeable people correct me.
Re: Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
#14This was never in doubt. Everyone knew this was going to happen. Are non tech companies really that foolish to think they can salvage a brand that was relevant 10 years ago and revive it? I have a feeling this is some kind of tax avoidance scheme. Knowing nothing about taxes and accounting I will let knowledgeable people correct me.
With AOL and Yahoo and all the pieces, there was definitely a value play here.
Verizon may just not have been the right company to execute that.
Re: Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
#15This was never in doubt. Everyone knew this was going to happen. Are non tech companies really that foolish to think they can salvage a brand that was relevant 10 years ago and revive it? I have a feeling this is some kind of tax avoidance scheme. Knowing nothing about taxes and accounting I will let knowledgeable people correct me.
Yahoo is still in wide use by people and AOL owns a number of properties and has a decent ad business. It may be that these companies were trying to extract value from them. This happens a decent amount these days. It's less about salvaging a brand.
Re: Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
#16This was never in doubt. Everyone knew this was going to happen. Are non tech companies really that foolish to think they can salvage a brand that was relevant 10 years ago and revive it? I have a feeling this is some kind of tax avoidance scheme. Knowing nothing about taxes and accounting I will let knowledgeable people correct me.
Yahoo is still in wide use by people and AOL owns a number of properties and has a decent ad business. It may be that these companies were trying to extract value from them. This happens a decent amount these days. It's less about salvaging a brand.
I still use Yahoo Finance. Not extensively, but I haven't found a site I like better for getting random stock quotes & sifting through lightweight financial information.
Re: Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
AOL has adtech advertisers setup with some large customer base probably 3rd or 4th to Google/Facebook. It also owns publishers like HuffPost, TechCrunch etc.
Well when your large customer base leads you to a $5 billion writedown and a public confession that Google and Facebook are eating your lunch… https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/12/verizon... …color me skeptical that there’s a bright future there.
They had good customer base initially. AOL has done so many acquisitions for like Adaptv(video advertising platform), Millenial Media(mobile advertising) etc which were pretty successful. Later ofcourse Yahoo. Failure started coz they platform integration plan didn't work as expected. Lot of talent from the acquisitions left. They still use lot of old tech setup for advertising, web platforms. In summary, they failed in making a single platform from acquisitions they had.
Re: Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
#18"This next evolution of Yahoo will be the most thrilling yet"
I'm very skeptical about that claim.
Re: Verizon Sells AOL and Yahoo to Apollo for $5B
#19I worked at HuffPo right after AOL was acquired by Verizon and before AOL/Yahoo became Oath. During this time Arianna left; rumor was she was forced out or at the very least, her power was undermined/neutered by Verizon and she was unable to fulfill her vision. Shortly after was the 2016 election. It was very surreal to be working there, while everyone on the editorial staff was sure HRC was going to win and then Tru…
> started to become obvious that Verizon was starting to extract as much value out of the acquired AOL web properties at the expense of quality/brand integrity.
This seems like a good assumption to make anytime a company is sold.