Yahoo’s name will soon be changed to “Altaba” as its sale to Verizon is near completion.
CEO Marissa Mayer and co-founder David Filo are also stepping down from the board of directors, according to a filing with the U.S. securities and exchange commission.
Altaba is believed to be a portmanteau of the word “alternate” and “Alibaba,” a Chinese e-commerce company in which Yahoo is a stakeholder, reports The Wall Street Journal.
After a Yahoo breach that affected around one billion accounts was discovered in December, Verizon cooled on the purchase. Yahoo reportedly broke its own record for largest single data breach.
“We believe this incident is likely distinct from the incident we disclosed on September 22, 2016,” Yahoo Chief Information Security Officer Bob Lord announced last month.
At the time of the more recent hack, a representative for Yahoo referred The Daily Caller News Foundation to a statement Mayer made on Q3 earnings Oct. 25:
“To that end, we take deep responsibility in protecting our users and the security of their information. We’re working hard to retain their trust and are heartened by their continued loyalty as seen in our user engagement trends.”
Verizon’s legal team wanted to review the hacking incident, specifically the damage undertaken, as well as determine if Verizon would share legal responsibility for the fallout after acquisition. The telecommunications company was exploring a lower price or an exit altogether from the deal, according to Bloomberg. (RELATED: Yahoo’s Christmas Cheer Is A Little More Humble This Year)
Verizon’s acquisition is believed to be for roughly $4.8 billion, one of the original valuations agreed upon. Brian Solomon at Forbes called it “the saddest $5 billion deal in tech history” because Yahoo was once valued at $125 billion, meaning it was sold for 1/25 of what it was worth 15 or so years ago. (RELATED: Yahoo Disables Email Forwarding Feature, Making It Harder For You To Move On)
As for Mayer, it is not quite clear what her role will be after the integration with Verizon. She was brought on as CEO of Yahoo in 2012, a precarious time for the company due to its dwindling influence in the tech community. Mayer’s original contract with Yahoo was worth a total of $365 million over five years, according to Business Insider. (RELATED: Marissa Mayer Got $365 Million Contract To Lose Yahoo Billions Of Dollars)
Yahoo, which was founded in 1994 by two graduate students at Stanford, was one of the original trail-blazer platforms of the Internet — expanding from a web portal directory into a search engine, electronic mail platform, news outlet, and many other services.
Yahoo did not reply to TheDCNF’s latest request for comment.
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