Goodbye To All That: Yahoo Sells To Verizon For $4.8 Billion

Remember those classic '90s commercials for Yahoo? That yelpin' cowboy at the end? Today, that dude must be YahoooOo-ing all the way to the bank. In what Forbes is calling the "saddest $5 billion deal in tech history" (LOL, true), Yahoo has officially given way and sold out to Verizon. 

Sure, a cool $4.8 billion sounds like a good deal for the web portal whose remaining users are the most heavily judged for their email address (you simply cannot date someone with a @yahoo.com at the end of their contact info), but when you think of the internet giant's highest net worth of around $125 bil, things get put into a little more perspective. 

Former Google exec and current Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced the news to employees in an email that recalled the golden days of the company: "Yahoo is a company that changed the world. Before Yahoo, the Internet was a government research project. Yahoo humanized and popularized the web, email, search, real-time media, and more...It’s because of that hard work and resilience, that Yahoo will realize amazing opportunities in its next chapter."

Since the sale now joins Yahoo with fellow fallen star and former competitor, AOL (which was bought by Verizon last year), here's hoping some semblance of a resurgence awaits - for Verizon's sake, at least. 

[Photo via @economictimes]