Apollo will acquire the former internet empires of AOL and Yahoo for $5 billion. Upon purchase, the company will be rebranded under Yahoo, and Verizon will keep a 10% stake in the new entity. The sale will see online media brands such as TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, and Engadget at a much lower valuation than they commanded a few years ago – Verizon purchased AOL for $4.4 billion in 2015, while in 2017 it paid $4.5 billion for Yahoo.
Goldman Sachs was Verizon’s lead financial adviser, along with Evercore and Kirkland & Ellis and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. LionTree teamed up with Apollo Funds as an investor and lead financial adviser. The deal is to be completed in the second half of 2021.
The deal came after Verizon pointed to the fact that it wanted to sell off its media properties and focus on its wireless networks and internet provider businesses. So far, it sold HuffPost and shut down other media properties such as Tumblr and Yahoo Answers.
Following the news, Verizon traded 0.22% higher, while Apollo Global Management closed the American session 0.54% lower.
Sources: cnbc.com, washingtonpost.com