Verizon chief confirms it's eyeing a bid for Yahoo
Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam has admitted it is considering a bid for Yahoo, according to CNBC.
The telecom giant has hinted of its interest in acquiring Yahoo in the past, with Fran Shammo, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Verizon, saying at a conference in December: “If Yahoo is right, we might look at it.”
However, when prodded earlier this week on how Yahoo would fit into Verizon’s three-tier strategy – great connectivity, owning traffic-driving platforms, and owning content – McAdams said: "We have to understand the trends. But then at the right price, I think marrying up some of their assets with AOL and the leadership would be good."
Verizon agreed a $4.4bn buyout of AOL in May 2015. Since then AOL has been put in an “incubator” with Verizon “feeding the information from our money subscribers into the AOL engine.”
The addition of Yahoo media to the mix could “turn it into something special,” according to CNBC.
Yahoo has found itself the target of potential takeover deals following years of lower-than-expected growth under chief executive Marissa Mayer. Most recently, Mayer was forced to axe 15 per cent of its workforce as revenues in its latest quarter dipped 15 per cent to $1bn.