The Internet company Yahoo is one of the best-known names in the industry – but has lost much of its importance. Now it wants to tie in with the old days with an IPO.
The internet company Yahoo plans to return to the stock exchange. The head of the US company, Jim Lanzone, announced the move to the Financial Times. With this one wants to help Yahoo – one of the oldest and best-known brands in the Internet industry – back to its former glory, it said. Yahoo is “financially ready” and very profitable, the newspaper’s manager said.
Internet pioneer will depend
Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo and first became a public company in 1996. In the 1990s, Yahoo rose to become one of the most popular websites in the world. As early as 1995, the company had developed the Internet search engine Yahoo Search, which was one of the leading Internet services for private users for a long time.
In the years that followed, the company steadily lost importance in Internet searches, but also as a portal. The rise of Google, in particular, led to a whole series of layoffs at Yahoo. The management tried several times for a reorientation, but could not stop the shrinking process.
From Verizon to Apollo
In 2017, the US telecommunications company Verizon took over the weakening portal. Yahoo has been owned by the New York-based financial investor Apollo since 2021, which bought the company from Verizon for around five billion dollars.
The company also operates an Internet portal which, according to company boss Jim Lanzone, is still one of the most popular websites worldwide. The group’s approximately 30 business units also include brands such as Yahoo Finance, Techcrunch, a news portal and an e-mail service.
According to its own statements, Yahoo is still in third place when it comes to Internet searches – albeit far behind the market leaders Google and Microsoft with its search engine Bing.
Further acquisitions planned
Lanzone announced that it would be on the lookout for interesting takeover opportunities. Yahoo recently bought the sports betting app Wagr to expand its sports business.
The new company boss, who previously ran the online dating platform Tinder, came in 2021 with the task of turning Yahoo back into an independent company. With the IPO, the financial investor Apollo would place at least part of its shares back on the market – depending on the company’s valuation with a considerable profit.