Verizon Just Bought Yahoo For $5 Billion, But Nobody Really Cares

58
5218
Verizon

Verizon today confirmed a $4.83 billion buyout of online pioneer Yahoo, marking end of an era for company that once defined the internet.

VerizonClose your eyes and go back in time of the dot-com bubble. One company that you will most certainly remember is Yahoo. Back then Yahoo did not offer too many services, but it did good with whatever it did. While Yahoo Search may have not been on everyone’s bookmark list, Yahoo Mail was. Add to this Yahoo Messenger which many could not do without. Yahoo did well and at the peak of the dot-com bubble was even valued at $125 billion. While success came easy things quickly took a nose dive and today, we have heard that one of the internet’s most well-known portals is about to be sold for a mere $5 billion to Verizon. The worst bit is, that in the vast internet universe today, nobody really cares.

Today, Yahoo Mail still struggles, while Messenger is almost non-existent. The only known Yahoo property today is Flickr, which was acquired by company in 2005. It may not make a dent in the universe, but Flickr still stands strong today and is way better (especially after going free for all) than the Mail service which offers nothing new (apart from ads).

VerizonVerizon Communications Inc who is expected to acquire Yahoo, will add it to its long list of acquisitions, which also includes The Huffington Post, Techcrunch, Engadget among many others.

While it is uncertain whether the company will die a slow death, or will simply be culled altogether. Yahoo will always be known as the pioneer that once existed.

Yahoo Mail

Back in the early days prior to the dot-com bubble, Yahoo co-founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo, saw plenty of business potential in Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web, which was soon christened as Yahoo! Soon after this came a stream of acquisitions with a long list of products that many who were new to the world wide web quickly adopted to. Yahoo Mail was one of them. A simple and productive email service, which was born of out Yahoo’s Rocketmail acquisition. It was free for personal use, while business users had a to pay up to get more storage. But Rocketmail’s acquisition, was a sign of times to come as back then, as it was Hotmail that inspired them to do so.

The lack of innovation was evident and when Google’s Gmail showed up with 1GB of free storage, Yahoo simply jumped on to another player called Oddpost and incorporated its features into Yahoo Mail. While it worked for a while, it was clear that Yahoo simply could not compete with Google that kept coming up with innovative features that improved and automated the email experience, drawing users into its fold.

Yahoo.com

Yahoo.com, the web portal was no slouch, it was the place to go to, back in early 2000s, to get the best of news, sports and more. More importantly, with local domains in place, things soon got localised which gave a sense of personalisation from country to country. Back then everyone was hungry for good content and Yahoo simply kept on giving making Yahoo.com a popular starting point on the internet for many users.

But Google Search began to show up time and again, and once again, Yahoo sought the easy way out. It began using Google Search for its search results which gave it a headstart, but thankfully, this time pushed for its own search engine which it eventually began using four years later in 2004.

Image Messenger was a favourite, available as a standalone app, I remember how easy it was to connect and chat with friends and relatives in another country. More importantly, it was free and back then this was big! Its claim to fame was also public chatrooms or Yahoo Chat, a feature that was shot down in 2012, post which it has been struggling to get more users on board. But the fun bit about Yahoo Messenger were the plugins. The Yahoo Music Radio was a “cool” way to chat, that let you live stream radio for free (or paid for some).

Hello Verizon!

Post the dot-com bubble, Yahoo once again began to hunt for acquisitions that it thought would make its life easier. In 2002, it picked up a handful of companies and even tied up with Verizon to launch a DSL service in the United States. There were Yahoo Widgets thanks to Konfabulator and Yahoo soon launched a paid search program that would deliver guaranteed listings on in its search results which did not turn out to be successful. Its last acquisition during this phase was that of Flickr in 2005.

VerizonYahoo Who?

Yahoo’s biggest reason, as cited by many is how it did not quickly adapt to the changing internet landscape. Even after CEO Marissa Mayer took over in 2012, the company failed to make anything substantial out of its existing acquisitions. Something that would make many investors worry.

Soon after second phase (around 2005) Microsoft was after Yahoo for a good 3 years with its last and final offer being $44.6 billion in cash and stock. An offer which Yahoo called “substantially undervaluing” (Why oh! Why?).

A few complicated years later we had Marissa Mayer takeover, which saw the acquisition of Tumblr to bolster Yahoo’s social presence. Add to this a complete makeover of Flickr and that’s about it.

What remains of Yahoo today is, is just Flickr. Yahoo is only known for its headlines, whenever it appears in the news like it has today.

The company had a much better chance of survival with Microsoft back in 2008. Even LinkedIn got $26.2 billion but that was today in 2016!

Kids will continue to remember Yahoo as a pioneer that fizzled out soon after the dot-com burst. From a company that actually provided quality content, to an ad-run sponsored mess, Yahoo’s future for now seems doomed even in the hands of Verizon.

Source: First Post

Image source: Image 1Image 2Image 3Featured image

58 COMMENTS

  1. I simply want to mention I am just all new to blogging and site-building and definitely enjoyed your website. Very likely I’m want to bookmark your blog post . You really have very good well written articles. Thank you for sharing with us your blog.

  2. I dont think Ive caught all the angles of this subject the way youve pointed them out. Youre a true star, a rock star man. Youve got so much to say and know so much about the subject that I think you should just teach a class about it

  3. The when I read a blog, Lets hope that this doesnt disappoint me just as much as that one. I am talking about, I know it was my option to read, but I actually thought youd have some thing intriguing to talk about. All I hear is really a couple of whining about something that you could fix should you werent too busy in search of attention.

  4. Hello there! I could have sworn I’ve visited your blog before but after going through many of the articles I realized it’s new to me. Regardless, I’m certainly delighted I came across it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back often!

  5. The next time I read a blog, Hopefully it doesn’t fail me just as much as this particular one. I mean, Yes, it was my choice to read through, but I truly believed you would have something helpful to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of complaining about something you could fix if you were not too busy seeking attention.

  6. The very next time I read a blog, Hopefully it doesn’t disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I know it was my choice to read, nonetheless I actually thought you’d have something useful to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of moaning about something you could possibly fix if you were not too busy looking for attention.

  7. When I initially commented I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on every time a comment is added I get 4 emails with the exact same comment. There has to be a way you can remove me from that service? Many thanks.

  8. Having read this I believed it was rather informative. I appreciate you finding the time and energy to put this information together. I once again find myself spending way too much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!

  9. An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who has been conducting a little homework on this. And he actually ordered me breakfast simply because I found it for him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this matter here on your site.

  10. Howdy, I believe your web site may be having internet browser compatibility issues. When I take a look at your blog in Safari, it looks fine however, when opening in IE, it has some overlapping issues. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Aside from that, excellent website!

  11. An intriguing discussion is worth comment. I do think that you need to write more about this issue, it may not be a taboo matter but generally folks don’t speak about these topics. To the next! Best wishes!

  12. I must thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog. I really hope to view the same high-grade blog posts from you in the future as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has inspired me to get my own site now 😉

  13. I merely have to show you that I am new to putting up a blog and pretty much admired your information. Probably I am going to save your blog post . You truly have lovely article content. Acknowledge it for telling with us your very own site webpage

  14. Sapid Agency is a Search Engine Optimization company in New York City that provides SEO Services. Their proprietary SEO strategies help struggling websites and aspiring business owners to rank their websites higher in multiple search engines like Google , Yahoo and Bing. They provide local and gmb map ranking for businesses in NYC and many other local areas. Find more at https://www.sapidagency.com/ @ 145 E 57TH NEW YORK, NY 10022, USA, +1 971 341 5608 USA

  15. Heya here, just turned mindful of your website through Search engine, and realized that it’s pretty helpful. I’ll appreciate if you carry on this informative article.

  16. MetroClick specializes in building completely interactive products like Photo Booth for rental or sale, Touch Screen Kiosks, Large Touch Screen Displays , Monitors, Digital Signages and experiences. With our own hardware production facility and in-house software development teams, we are able to achieve the highest level of customization and versatility for Photo Booths, Touch Screen Kiosks, Touch Screen Monitors and Digital Signage. Visit MetroClick in NYC at http://www.metroclick.com/ or , 121 Varick St, New York, NY 10013, +1 646-843-0888.

  17. I really need to share it with you that I am new to posting and certainly admired your webpage. Very likely I am likely to bookmark your blog post . You simply have amazing article information. Delight In it for discussing with us your favorite blog page

  18. I have been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me. In my opinion, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the web will be much more useful than ever before.

  19. Woah! I’m really loving the template/theme of this site. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s very hard to get that “perfect balance” between usability and appearance. I must say you’ve done a amazing job with this. Also, the blog loads super fast for me on Internet explorer. Superb Blog!|

  20. Hey there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing months of hard work due to no back up. Do you have any solutions to prevent hackers?|

  21. Greetings! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a collection of volunteers and starting a new initiative in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a outstanding job!|

  22. Hi there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your content seem to be running off the screen in Safari. I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to let you know. The style and design look great though! Hope you get the problem resolved soon. Kudos|

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here