Verizon to announce 5 billion buy-out of Yahoo today

The purchase of Yahoo’s operations will boost Verizon’s AOL internet business, which it bought last year for $4.4 billion, and give it access to Yahoo’s ad technology tools, BrightRoll and Flurry, and assets such as search, mail and messenger.

The deal, expected to close in early 2017, marks the end of Yahoo as an operating company, leaving it with a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) and a 35.5 percent interest in Yahoo Japan Corp (4689.T).

“The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo,” Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said in a statement on Monday.

Started in 1994 by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo, Yahoo in its early years was the destination of choice for many making their first forays onto the World Wide Web.

By 2008, Yahoo was fending off a contentious takeover bid from Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and struggling to define its mission.

It has since fallen behind the curve to ever-growing search engine giant Google and its suite of web-based services.