Four-month bidding war ends with Verizon on top

Jul 25, 2016 00:25 GMT  ·  By

Yahoo's board of directors approved a sale bid from Verizon last Friday, and they are set to make the official announcement later today, several US news outlets have reported.

The deal is said to be worth between $4.8 and $5 billion, varying by source, but what's sure is that Verizon won the bidding war that started at the end of February.

Back then, Yahoo silently formed a Strategic Review Committee of independent directors who were tasked with "exploring strategic alternatives" alongside their existing management structure (in other words: buyers).

Verizon won a three-way bidding war

Several companies and groups were rumored to have submitted bids, but in the end, three entities were in the final battle: Verizon, private equity firm TPG, and a group of investors led by Dan Gilbert.

At this stage, only Yahoo's board of directors have approved the bid. Verizon's investors must also approve the acquisition, for which initially they had made a much less substantial offer. The acquisition must also pass regulatory inspection by US authorities.

There are no details as to what Verizon has agreed to buy from Yahoo's real estate, or whether Marissa Mayer and the rest of the Yahoo executives will remain on board with Verizon in some roles.

Verizon has always been the frontrunner

Verizon has always been seen as the clear-cut favorite in buying Yahoo because of the history between AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who both worked at Google in the company's early days.

Verizon bought AOL in the summer of 2015 for $4.4 billion. Current rumors have the two companies merging in order to provide Verizon's massive services with on-demand, in-house content.

According to statistics from February 2016, Yahoo has over 1 billion monthly active users, with over 600 million coming via mobile devices.