Yahoo! For Sale!

Published On March 1, 2016 | By Tom Huskerson | News and Analysis

Yahoo-headquartersYahoo!,  the oldest web company still in business was founded 20 years ago by Jerry Yang and David Filo. It was, and still is, a directory or search engine to help people navigate the web. When Yahoo! came on the scene the WWW was not what it is now. You could actually count the websites back then. It could be said that Yahoo! was the Internet’s first golden child. My how times have changed.

Now Yahoo! is known as a cauldron of intrigue, dysfunction, and fascination and it may be dying as we know it. Yahoo! used to be so cool. Critics say that the company failed to keep up with the explosion of mobile and social networking. Despite multiple turnaround plans, nothing has really worked. Now it is rumored that Yahoo! may be selling off its Internet businesses and maybe even itself.

Earlier this month Yahoo announced it was laying off 15 percent of its 11,000-strong workforce or roughly 1,500 jobs. It is also closing a number of overseas offices cutting as much as $400 million in expenses.  In addition to those cost cutting measures the company is also shutting down some of its web businesses including  Yahoo! Food, Yahoo! Health, Yahoo! Parenting, Yahoo! Makers, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Autos, and Yahoo! Real Estate.

Yahoo!’s biggest move in recent history is its purchase of the social media website Tumblr for $1 billion. But that has not helped the overall picture. Now the company is selling itself either whole or in pieces.

In the business world Yahoo! is commonly known as a fallen angel. That means it is a company that has value but is not performing the way it should. That would explain why there some pretty big name players that are looking at buying some or all of Yahoo! or even a merger.

Verizon Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. are companies that are expressing interest. Other investors that are said to be looking into Yahoo! are  Bain Capital Partners, KKR & Co. and TPG.

Time Incorporated, publishers of Time, Sports Illustrated, People and Fortune magazines, may be looking into merging with Yahoo’s core digital operations that could deliver Yahoo! from being sold in pieces. According to Bloomberg, executives from Time Inc. were considering the merger following a presentation from Citigroup bankers pushing the deal.

As we all have known Yahoo! it seems to be coming to an end. Questions are everywhere about the future of the company; can a buyer be found or will the company be slowly sold off piece by piece? What will the remainder of Yahoo! look like and how will it affect its millions of customers and email account holders? Will advertisers slowly move away draining the life blood, money, from the company? Can a buyer rebuild the brand into a force again? Only time will tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

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