What Does it Mean if Verizon Acquires Yahoo?

Yahoo is no longer an independent entity. The service has been purchased by Verizon for $4.8 billion in a purchase that makes Verizon even larger than it was before. This broadband and cell phone company has grown quickly to become a major entity in the world of online marketing. Given the new web properties and brands Verizon acquired, the opportunities are endless. We will answer the question, “What does it mean if Verizon acquires Yahoo?”

Verizon Acquires Yahoo

How Verizon Acquires Yahoo Impacts Advertisers

Firstly, advertisers have to consider whenever Verizon makes a move because it can have an impact on them. The AOL of 2014 is greatly similar to the Yahoo of 2016. These companies both rose to become household names in the 1990s and early 2000s.

However, when mobile arrived their relevance was lost and they were outmaneuvered by their most agile competitors. While they still exist, it’s only as a shadow of their former selves.

 

Marketers Can Do Deals Directly

Previously, larger marketers had to make deals with brands through running their deal by multiple partners. This meant advertising deals could take a great deal of time to carry out. As a result, they would often lose opportunities and competitors were able to get a crucial advantage.

However, that will change because brands will be able to deal with Verizon directly. The fact that these brands are under Verizon means marketers and brands no longer have to deal with those specific brands.

Mobile Video Will Become Even Bigger

When looking at the rise of mobile, it is easy to understand why Verizon decided to make this deal. Marketers are currently taking advantage of mobile. They will soon be able to take advantage of a combined mobile network and content-marketing machine.

Yahoo comes with a significant amount of content. And this is content people are still reading regularly. More and more individuals reading from a mobile device. Therefore, an unprecedented opportunity presents itself for marketers to hit mobile browsers.

Advertisers Will Find it Easier to Track Their Results

Verizon gained control of the Yahoo Gemini ad platform and the mobile analytics suite Flurry.

Flurry is the interesting acquisition for advertisers because it has universal recognition as one of the better ones for tracking results.

Data that Advertisers Use Will be Cleaner

Advertisers always desire clean and accurate data when they deal with a platform.  Yahoo has always had the issue of hosting thousands of Yahoo Mail accounts that are out of data and unused.

It is largely expected that Verizon will clean these up to demonstrate to advertisers that the data it has is relevant.

Will Verizon Acquires Yahoo Provide Another Viable Advertising Platform for the Marketers?

The number of regular users is still lacking compared to those on Facebook and Google, despite the coming together of two big brands like Yahoo and AOL.

While there’s still no competition there, that doesn’t mean marketers should completely discount using Verizon as an advertising platform.

How Verizon’s Acquisition Impacts Yahoo Users

If you have a Yahoo email account or regularly visit services like Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports, you may be wondering what will happen to the once-venerable brand once Verizon takes over.

Neither Yahoo or Verizon has said much about the brand’s future once the $4.83 billion deal closes early next year. In announcing the deal in mid 2016, Verizon merely stated that the new Yahoo properties will become part of Verizon’s AOL business, which the phone company bought last year for $4.4 billion.

What Will Happen to Your Email?

Yahoo is the second most-popular email service behind Google’s Gmail in the U.S. In Europe and Latin America, it is even more popular.

Therefore, it makes sense for Verizon to keep that brand affinity intact, eMarketer analyst Paula Verna said.

 

What About the Yahoo Sites?

Because Verizon is buying Yahoo to strengthen its media and advertising platform, the websites are a valuable part of that.

According to Jefferies analyst Mike McCormack’s statement to investors, “Yahoo’s content and advertising portfolio should vastly expand AOL’s reach and technology.” Yahoo reaches over 1 billion active users each month, including 600 million mobile users, and McCormack believes that scale is attractive when selling ad space.

 

Will the Yahoo Name Stick Around?

The parts Verizon isn’t buying including Yahoo’s stakes in Yahoo Japan and Chinese eCommerce giant Alibaba Group. These parts will get a name change once the deal closes. The Yahoo brand was bought by Verizon as a part of the deal and has the option to keep the name.

Verizon is merging Yahoo with AOL’s operations, so it could also merge everything under the AOL brand name. Then again, other sites such as The Huffington Post and TechCruch kept their separate identities after AOL bought them years ago, and Verizon didn’t change that approach.

 

These are just a few ways Verizon acquires Yahoo might impact you.