Yahoo, one of the oldest and most famous brands on the Internet, was once popular in the dot-com stock market. Now, it is planning a return to the public markets. This move signifies a remarkable shift in the company‘s trajectory. Yahoo aims to leverage its historical brand recognition and tap into the current market trends.
The company’s CEO, Jim Lanzone, expressed his goal to take Yahoo to an IPO again. It is part of a plan to bring the iconic Silicon Valley brand back to prominence.
Yahoo is financially ready; the company has an excellent balance sheet, and we are very profitable, said Lanzon, reports the Financial Times. He added that privacy allowed the company to make the necessary structural changes, creating several business units.
Lanzon, the former CEO of Tinder, was brought in after the group was spun off from telecom company Verizon in September 2021 to re-establish Yahoo as an independent company. Verizon bought Yahoo in 2015 but suffered significant losses in the following years.
Yahoo first became a public company in April 1996. It quickly became one of the most popular user websites in the world, thanks to its combination of Internet search and e-mail. In 2008, the company rejected an offer from Microsoft, which wanted to take it over for $47 billion.
According to the CEO, Yahoo still ranks among the top five globally in terms of total traffic. Despite the changes and challenges over the past six years since being acquired by a telecommunications company, Yahoo’s position in the top five globally for total traffic is a testament to its enduring popularity and influence in the digital landscape.
Yahoo has over 30 sites and business units. Moreover, it is reportedly in third place in search engines behind Google and Bing.
Yahoo Lays Off 20 per Cent of Employees
The company said it plans to lay off more than 20 per cent of its employees. This is part of a major restructuring of its advertising technology division.
The cuts will affect nearly 50 per cent of Yahoo’s workforce by the end of this year, including nearly 1,000 this week. According to Reuters, the private investment company Apollo Global Management owns Yahoo from the buyout of five billion dollars in 2021.
The layoffs should allow the company to narrow its focus and investment in its flagship ad business, DSP. This comes after many advertisers cut their marketing budgets due to record-high inflation rates and continued uncertainty about the recession.
