Yahoo! is bought by Verizon

Yahoo! will be bought by Verizon, according to the media.

Independent: Verizon 'agrees to buy Yahoo' for $5bn

Yahoo! is an IT company whose main content is an internet portal site. Yahoo was developed in 1995 and used to be a representative of internet portal a couple of decades ago. However, following the rise of Google and other companies, Yahoo!’s influence was gradually reduced. Nowadays, Yahoo! Itself uses Google’s search engine.

Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo! seated the current position in 2012, moving from vice president of Google. She was struggling to improve the financial management of Yahoo!. Finally, she agreed to sell Yahoo! for five billion USD to Verizon.

Verizon is a US telecommunication company. Some years ago, it bought America Online as well. It seems to intend to enhance video streaming services through utilizing Yahoo!’s technology.

In Japan, Yahoo! Japan has been a consolidated subsidiary of SoftBank. Yahoo! has no plan to drop Yahoo! Japan’s stock, currently. Thus, the influence of this deal on Yahoo! Japan will be limited.

In my experience, Yahoo!’s services look somehow outdated. In addition, the main program and interface of Yahoo! and Yahoo! Japan are also a little inconveniently structured. As a traditional company of the internet industry, Yahoo! has to be reborn.

Mayer has a rather conservative ideology, rare as a leader of an internet company. She abandoned flexible workstyle in Yahoo! soon after assumed office. It is unsure her thoughts were accepted by the employees.

Yahoo!’s rise and fall are somehow historic, considering that the history of the internet has been continuous only for some decades. The future of Google, Facebook, and Twitter is also unpredictable.