 Altaba Inc. logo | |
| Formerly | Yahoo! Inc. (1995–2017) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| Nasdaq: AABA | |
| Industry | Investment company |
| Predecessor | Yahoo! Inc. |
| Founded | January 1994; 31 years ago (1994-01) (as Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web) March 2, 1995; 30 years ago (1995-03-02) (as Yahoo!) June 17, 2017 (2017-06-17) (as Altaba) |
| Founders | |
| Defunct | October 4, 2019 (2019-10-04) |
| Fate | Dissolution |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York ,United States |
Key people | Thomas J. McInerney (president andCEO) |
| Revenue | $333 million[1] (2018) |
| Subsidiaries | Excalibur IP, LLC |
| Website | www |
Altaba Inc. was a non-diversified, closed-end managementinvestment company based inNew York City[2] that was formed from the remains ofthe first incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. afterVerizon had acquired old Yahoo'sInternet business.[3] Verizon completed its acquisition on June 13, 2017, and put the assets under a new subsidiary named Yahoo! Holdings within its newly created division, Oath (nowthe current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc.).[4] After the transaction, Yahoo! Inc. had no operating business but retained its cash holdings, partnership investments and bond portfolio, as well as certain patents that Verizon did not purchase. It reorganized as an investment fund and changed its name to Altaba Inc. on June 16.[5][6][7] The only Yahoo!-branded interest held by Altaba was its stake in the joint ventureYahoo! Japan, which it sold to theSoftBank Group in late 2018.[2][8]
In January 1994,Jerry Yang andDavid Filo, who were Electrical Engineering graduate students, created a website called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web". The Guide was a directory of other websites, organized in a hierarchy, as opposed to a searchable index of pages. In April 1994, Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web was renamed "Yahoo!".[9][10] The word "YAHOO" is abackronym for "Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle"[11] or "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle."[12] The yahoo.com domain was created on January 18, 1995.[13]
Yahoo! grew rapidly throughout the 1990s and diversified into aweb portal, followed by numerous high-profile acquisitions. The company's stock price skyrocketed during thedot-com bubble and closed at an all-time high of US$118.75 in 2000;[14] however, after the dot-com bubble burst, it reached an all-time low of US$8.11 in 2001.[15] Yahoo! formally rejected an acquisition bid from theMicrosoft Corporation in 2008.[16] In early 2012, the largest layoff in Yahoo!'s history was completed and 2,000 employees (14 percent of the workforce) lost their jobs.[17]
Carol Bartz replaced co-founder Jerry Yang asCEO in January 2009,[18] but was fired by the board of directors in September 2011;Tim Morse was appointed as interim CEO following Bartz's departure.[19] FormerPayPal presidentScott Thompson became CEO in January 2012 and after he resigned was replaced byRoss Levinsohn as the company's interim CEO on May 13, 2012. On July 16, former Google executiveMarissa Mayer, became the CEO of the company.[20]
The media reported on Yahoo!'s interest in the video streaming site Hulu on May 26, 2013. Under Mayer's leadership, Yahoo!'s bid is worth between US$600 and $800 million, as a variety of options that consist of different circumstances were put forward by the company.[21] As of May 28, 2013, Yahoo!'s videos attract 45 million unique visitors a month, while Hulu has 24 million visitors—the combination of the two audiences can place Yahoo! in the second-most popular position after Google and its subsidiaryYouTube.[22]
Data collated by comScore during July 2013 revealed that more people in the U.S. visited Yahoo! websites during the month in comparison to Google websites—the occasion was the first time that Yahoo! outperformed Google since 2011. The data did not incorporate visit statistics for the Yahoo!-owned Tumblr website or mobile phone usage.[23]
On September 22, 2016, Yahoo discloseda data breach in whichhackers stole information associated with at least 500 million user accounts in late 2014.[24] According to theBBC, this was the largest technicalbreach reported to date.[25] Specific details of material taken include names, email addresses, telephone numbers, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers, dates of birth, andencryptedpasswords.[26] The breach used manufacturedweb cookies to falsify login credentials, allowing hackers to gain access to any account without a password.[27][28][29] On December 14, 2016a separate data breach, occurring earlier around August 2013 was reported. This breach affected over 1 billion user accounts and is again considered the largest discovered in thehistory of the Internet.[30]
On June 13, 2017, following the departure ofMarissa Mayer,Thomas J. McInerney was appointed chairman and CEO of Yahoo! Inc.[31]
On June 16, 2017, the company that remained after Verizon Communications purchased the core Internet businesses of Yahoo! Inc. was renamedAltaba Inc. The new company, listed by theSecurities and Exchange Commission as a "non-diversified,closed-end management investment company,"[7][32] immediately began trading onNASDAQ under the ticker symbolAABA.[33]
In September 2018, Altaba settled three lawsuits relating to Yahoo's data breaches for $47 million.[34]
On September 17, 2018, Altaba announced the sale of their stake in Yahoo Japan Corporation for $4.3 billion.[35] On the same day, Altaba announced a $5.75 billion share repurchase program.[36]
On April 3, 2019, Altaba announced in a press release that it would sell its stake inAlibaba Group and shut down.[37] The company would shut down in the fourth quarter of 2019.[38]
On October 2, 2019, Altaba stopped trading on the Nasdaq at the close of the day,[39] and pursuant to its Plan of Complete Liquidation and Dissolution, filed acertificate of dissolution in Delaware (where Altaba is domiciled), on October 4.[40] A small amount of funds will be withheld for potential Chinese taxes on the sale of its stake in the Alibaba Group.[41] In 2020, the company sold the Excalibur IP patent portfolio to RPX Corporation.[42]
Excalibur IP, apatent company owned by Altaba, controlled a significant minority interest inAlibaba Group (16.3%) until it sold its stake in 2019,[43] and maintained investments inHortonworks, Gomaji,Envestnet,Rimage Corporation,SeatGeek, Protagenic Therapeutics,Eastman Kodak Company, andPaperless Post.[44] The Fund's external investment advisors included BlackRock Advisors, LLC and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC.
The company divested itself of all holdings inSnap Inc. (the owner of Snapchat)[45] andYahoo! Japan.[46]
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, on September 26, 2001, Yahoo!'s stock hit its all-time low of $8.11.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |