It’s the end of an era for Yahoo as it is renamed ‘Altaba’, CEO Marissa Mayer resigns from board
By now you must probably know that Yahoo is being sold to Verizon for a record $5 billion. We started hearing these reports about five months ago, and it now looks like it’s a full end of an era for Yahoo, although some portions will be left behind. Reports suggest that these portions of the company will be renamed ‘Altaba,’.
According to TechCrunch, Yahoo is hanging on to its 15 percent stake in Alibaba and its 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan and those assets will survive as an investment company under the new name Altaba Inc., as the rest of Yahoo integrates with Verizon.
All but five of Altaba’s board of directors, namely David Filo, Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Hill, Jane Shaw, Maynard Webb, and Marissa Mayer will also step down upon the conclusion of the deal. That is according to a filing with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The filing according to TechCrunch is a clear indication that Verizon is going ahead with its purchase of Yahoo.
Verizon is also reportedly to have considered asking for a discount on the deal following the recent massive security breaches that were reported on Yahoo. The breach saw data from more than 1bn user accounts compromised in August 2013, making it the largest such breach in history.
The hackers according to Yahoo’s chief information security officer, Bob Lord used “forged ‘cookies’” – bits of code that stay in the user’s browser cache so that a website doesn’t require a login with every visit. These cookies “could allow an intruder to access users’ accounts without a password” by misidentifying anyone using them as the owner of an email account.
Well, all we have to do is wait and see if these cyber attacks on Yahoo will impact this sale to Verizon. More clues are expected to emerge during Yahoo’s earnings call later this month. In the meantime, you should start getting used to the name ‘Altaba,’.
