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Verizon Says Yahoo Name Isn't Going Away (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the keeping-it dept.

Verizon is treading carefully with Yahoo, but still wants to seal the deal. From a CNET report: "The deal makes strategic sense," said Marni Walden, the executive vice president of business innovation for Verizon and the person who pushed for the acquisition. "We won't jump off of a cliff blindly." She continues to believe there's value in the Yahoo name, noting that it won't go away if Verizon completes its acquisition. Brands like Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Finance still draw plenty of eyeballs, and offer the kind of audience that Verizon and AOL lack, she said during a keynote session at The Wall Street Journal Digital conference on Wednesday. Her comments come just weeks after Yahoo disclosed a 2014 breach exposed at least 500 million accounts, making it the worst hack in history. Shortly after, reports found that Yahoo had participated in a government program to sniff user emails, further eroding trust. Verizon said this all had the potential to cause a "material impact" to the deal, which could mean Yahoo takes a reduced price or the deal falls through altogether.

6 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. email/im by dejitaru · · Score: 2

    IF this merger happens I really want to see what they do with their email and IM portions of AOL and Yahoo. If they merge it under one of the names or keep it separate. Yay finally interoperability between yahoo and aim! (not like I use them or know anyone who still does)

  2. Yum by The-Ixian · · Score: 2

    Take a nice big bite of that turd sandwich and smile like you love it!

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  3. The few Web 1.0 Sites. by jellomizer · · Score: 2

    While myself like a lot of people had moved away from Yahoo, it wasn't from disgust like I had with other site, but more to the fact that other sites just did the job better for me.
    The Yahoo Name isn't unredeemable however it will take a while to get the users back. And they have to be more than on-par with their competitors they will need to be superior.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:The few Web 1.0 Sites. by nine-times · · Score: 2

      I agree with your sentiment, but not your conclusion. That is, Yahoo doesn't inspire disgust or outrage for me. I don't hate Yahoo the way I hate some companies. The feeling that Yahoo inspires in me is something more like, "meh." It's the site that was part of the early web, and then became one of those lame portals, along with such stellar inspirations of "meh" as AOL and MSN, that you might find some piece of semi-malware switched your homepage to.

      However, I don't think that means the brand is worth salvaging, specifically because the brand inspires a sense of "meh". If I hear Google or Apple is about to introduce a brand new product, my expectation is that it's probably going to be something interesting. Even if Twitter announced that they'd be introducing a big change, I'd be curious and want to find out what it is. If Yahoo announces big changes coming, I expect that they're going to be shuffling around their existing semi-competent me-too products-- like maybe they're going to have a new theme for their portal, or their webmail will introduce "labels", or something similarly uninspired.

      Maybe I'm wrong. I know people have a good association with Yahoo Finance. Do people still use Yahoo webmail or Yahoo Messenger? Is Yahoo Answers used for purposes other than trolling? Are there other services that are popular that I've just lost track of?

      Also, and admittedly I'm just basing this on my own perceptions, but I don't think "Yahoo!" is a very good name for what they're trying to be. Sure, it's kind of fun, but it would be more appropriate branding for a Flash game website or something of that kind. If you'd never heard of the company and it were just being introduced today, I don't think "Yahoo!" would be considered a good choice for a web portal, news site, or a tech conglomerate. It's too playful and not serious enough. Verizon already owns AOL, and I think the name and branding for "AOL" is going to play better in this day and age, and I'm not sure it makes sense to maintain both brands.

      On the other hand, it's not clear to me what Verizon wants from these purchases. It might be less about what companies like AOL and Yahoo can provide, and more about trying funnel the people using them as an ISP to content they own and control.

    2. Re:The few Web 1.0 Sites. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      Maybe I'm wrong. I know people have a good association with Yahoo Finance. Do people still use Yahoo webmail or Yahoo Messenger? Is Yahoo Answers used for purposes other than trolling? Are there other services that are popular that I've just lost track of?

      I use some of the Yahoo groups. After Usenet collapsed the Yahoo groups filled in and added some file storage ability. It also offered the ability to moderate people who were assholes or got hacked for having lame passwords. That is actually a rather nice service.

      Yahoo Sports is actually a professional and nice alternative to the Walt Disney version of sports, ESPN.

      Now that being said, on all of the news type pages, fully half of the news links are of the Taboola clickbait variety. Completely worthless and a waste of time, and since they are placed as if they are a legit news story, you can accidentally click on them. So I don't even check the sports stories that much any more. Yahoo as it is isn't worth much.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  4. Re:AOL AND Yahoo!!!? by xlsior · · Score: 2

    So Verizon now has both AOL and Yahoo! ??? Why do they want/need both?

    They live 20 years in the past, as proven by their broadband offerings as well. What's the most delusional about this takeover is that Verizon's main goal of the takeover is to leverage yahoo and almost double their customer base to 2 billion in the next 4 years. Neither Verizon nor Yahoo has a good track record attracting or retaining customers any time there is even a glimmer of choice involved, and they don't exactly have a captive audience here.