U.S. telco giant Verizon has acquired tech company and pioneering web brand Yahoo for US$4.83 billion.
The deal, confirmed by both parties in advance of the financial markets opening for the day, will see Verizon take Yahoo’s core Internet assets and land assets, while the company’s shareholders retains stakes in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, Yahoo Japan, and assorted patents.
Verizon will merge Yahoo with AOL, which it purchased last year for approximately $4.4 billion.
Recently, Verizon has been making more plays in the mobile video space with its ad-supported streaming platform, Go90, and recently hired former YouTube exec Ivana Kirkbride as content chief for the service.
Yahoo’s forays into content, meanwhile, have scaled back over the last year, with its on-demand streaming service, Yahoo Screen, signing off in January of this year.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (pictured) said in an email to staff posted on her Tumblr that she is “planning to stay” and that it is “important to me to see Yahoo into its next chapter,” but it is unclear as to whether she would be staying beyond the transition. Brands that will now fall under Verizon’s combined AOL/Yahoo umbrella include The Huffington Post, Tumblr and Techcrunch.