AOL-Yahoo Combination Remerges After Verizon Acquisition As ‘Oath’
Once Verizon completes its acquisition of Yahoo and merges it with AOL, it will create a new "value" division called "Oath." Tim Armstrong, the longtime CEO of AOL, tweeted out the new name and it did not take long for the Internet to start mocking it. That is to be expected when snark seems to rule the web, though Verizon certainly didn't do itself any favors by settling on the name "Oath" without any explanation to how it arrived at that brand.
Here is a look at the original Twitter post and some of the comments that followed:
Billion+ Consumers, 20+ Brands, Unstoppable Team. #TakeTheOath. Summer 2017. pic.twitter.com/tM3Ac1Wi36
— Tim Armstrong (@timarmstrongaol) April 3, 2017
Tribune Publishing: "We will now be known as Tronc."
— A.J. Perez (@byajperez) April 3, 2017
Verizon: “Hold my beer.” https://t.co/KSP4C87tEO
@timarmstrongaol @darth I think they forgot about the 2nd meaning tbh pic.twitter.com/80jWbYkxOa
— James Petruzzi (@Hawaiianimages) April 3, 2017
In any event, Oath will oversee more than 20 brands reaching more than a billion Internet users, according to Armstrong. It will kick off this summer with a brand campaign leading up to the launch of Oath. As for AOL and Yahoo, it is not clear if either or both brands will remain, and if so, what role each brand and division might play once the merger and creation of Oath are completed.
"In the summer of 2017, you can bet we will be launching one of the most disruptive brand companies in digital," AOL said in a statement.
It's also not clear what is to become of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Rumor has it she will be invited to come along for the ride, and that terms of her departure are currently being hammered out. However, that has not been substantiated by an official source.
Verizon is set to buy Yahoo for $4.48 billion. The wireless telecom originally agreed to acquire the outfit for $4.83 billion, but later negotiated a lesser amount following the public disclosure of two major security breaches at Yahoo. At least 200 million Yahoo accounts were compromised in the first breach, and more than one billion accounts were impacted by the second one.
Image Source: Flickr (Eric Hauser)
Thumbnail Image Source: Flickr (Rex Hammock)
It's also not clear what is to become of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Rumor has it she will be invited to come along for the ride, and that terms of her departure are currently being hammered out. However, that has not been substantiated by an official source.
Verizon is set to buy Yahoo for $4.48 billion. The wireless telecom originally agreed to acquire the outfit for $4.83 billion, but later negotiated a lesser amount following the public disclosure of two major security breaches at Yahoo. At least 200 million Yahoo accounts were compromised in the first breach, and more than one billion accounts were impacted by the second one.
Image Source: Flickr (Eric Hauser)
Thumbnail Image Source: Flickr (Rex Hammock)
