Verizon to sunset Oath brand and make way for Verizon Media Group
As part of a business restructure, Verizon is planning to phase out the Oath brand and bring its platforms and services under a new division called Verizon Media Group.
Gowrappan said more detail, including a "transition timeline" would be provided to staff "by the end of the year
Oath's extensive portfolio currently includes Tumblr, Yahoo Sports and HuffPost. The brand was launched in 2017 following the $4.5bn merger of Yahoo and AOL
A now deleted tweet from a Huffington Post journalist showed an all-staff email circulated to Oath staff from chief executive Guru Gowrappan, which read: "I want to be clear that we will continue to have a portfolio of brands and products - and we will always lead with those."
He added: "Over time we will transition to use Verizon as our company name and Verizon Media Group as our business unit."
Gowrappan said more detail, including a "transition timeline" would be provided to staff "by the end of the year".
Oath owner, Verizon announced on Monday that it was to reorganise its business segments into consumer, business and Verizon Media Group/Oath. However, Gowrappan's email confirms that the the Oath brand will eventually be sunsetted just over 18 months since it launched.
The Drum has reached out to Oath for a statement – at the time of writing it had yet to reply.
On its conception Oath was spearheaded by former AOL boss Tim Armstrong, who exited the business in October. Gowrappan, previously chief operating officer, was ushered in as a replacement.
Despite bulking up its ad tech proposition and making good on its pledge to simplify its services by consolidating its multiple DSPs into a single platform, Oath has struggled to grow revenues.
In the most recent quarter the media group posted a 6.9% slum in revenues to $1.8bn — coinciding with a spell of disruption as management battled to integrate legacy AOL and Yahoo ad platforms by the end of the year.
The dip in fortunes forced Oath to row back on its ambitious target of generating $10bn in sales by 2020, with the firm conceding that revenues were likely to be "relatively flat in the near-term".