Yahoo was formed in 1994, beginning life as a search engine. By 2000, it was valued at $125 billion. I recall at the time being told that it was a bigger company than British Airways; it struck me as absurd, as by any objective criteria it was worth, perhaps, a few tens of millions. But they were heady days, soon put to an end by the burst of the dot com bubble, when reality began to set in. Two years later, Yahoo try to buy its main competitor - Google - for $3 billion, which Google rejected. In 2008, Microsoft unsuccessfully tried to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion. Five years later, as part of its strategy to improve its fortunes, Yahoo acquired Tumblr, but by 2015 made a net loss of $4.4 billion. So, they are probably doing quite well if someone is prepared to pay $5 billion for them at this stage. Whether Yahoo continues as a brand is a moot point. The assets do not includes Yahoo's investments in the giant Chinese online retailer, Alibaba, which has generated some serious money over the years.
The internet company Yahoo has been sold to the Verizon - one of the largest telecoms suppliers in the US - for nearly $5 billion. Although Yahoo remains a recognised brand in many parts of the world, it is an astonishing change of fortune for the internet pioneer, which was once comparable to Google or Facebook in its size and influence.
Yahoo was formed in 1994, beginning life as a search engine. By 2000, it was valued at $125 billion. I recall at the time being told that it was a bigger company than British Airways; it struck me as absurd, as by any objective criteria it was worth, perhaps, a few tens of millions. But they were heady days, soon put to an end by the burst of the dot com bubble, when reality began to set in. Two years later, Yahoo try to buy its main competitor - Google - for $3 billion, which Google rejected. In 2008, Microsoft unsuccessfully tried to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion. Five years later, as part of its strategy to improve its fortunes, Yahoo acquired Tumblr, but by 2015 made a net loss of $4.4 billion. So, they are probably doing quite well if someone is prepared to pay $5 billion for them at this stage. Whether Yahoo continues as a brand is a moot point. The assets do not includes Yahoo's investments in the giant Chinese online retailer, Alibaba, which has generated some serious money over the years. |
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