Yahoo to be rebranded ‘Altaba’, Mayer to step down as CEO

Yahoo has announced that it will soon be renamed to ‘Altaba’ and its CEO Marissa Mayer will step down from the board of directors after closing of its proposed sale of its main Internet properties to Verizon Communications Inc.

The Internet company was acquired by Verizon, a US wireless communications service provider, for a cost of $4.8 billion last July 2016.  The deal came after CEO Marissa Mayer failed to deliver on a turnaround after her arrival in 2012.

However, in the months since then, Yahoo has admitted to two of the biggest data breaches ever. In September, it acknowledged that details of 500 million accounts had been stolen. In December, it said that details of 1 billion accounts were stolen in a separate incident. News of the breaches tarnished Yahoo’s brand and the reputation of its management team and prompted reports that Verizon was seeking to renegotiate or even abandon the deal. Nevertheless, the company’s filing with the SEC making preparations for the deal, though, indicates that it is still on.

As soon as Verizon takes over the Yahoo portals and brand, Altaba’s main purpose will be as an investment vehicle for stakes in Alibaba and in Yahoo Japan, an independent company of which Yahoo only owns 35.6 percent. Most of the rest is owned by Softbank Group, the Japanese company that also owns US telco Sprint and chip designer ARM. The sale is expected to be completed by late March, Yahoo said.

According to a report by Bloomberg, directors who will remain with Altaba after the closing of the Verizon sale are Tor Braham, Eric Brandt, Catherine Friedman, Thomas McInerney and Jeffrey Smith. Brandt was named the chairman to help the company ease its transition to an investment vehicle. On the other hand, David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo, and Maynard Webb, who had been chairman, intend to leave after the planned sale of the web services to Verizon. Webb was named chairman emeritus.