Alibaba! Yahoo to be renamed Altaba

Alibaba! Yahoo will soon be renamed Altaba

Yahoo has announced that following the close of its deal with Verizon, the remaining company would rename itself Altaba and chief executive officer Marissa Mayer would step down from the board.
Five other Yahoo directors would also resign after the deal closes, Yahoo said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

The remaining directors will govern Altaba, a holding company whose primary assets will be a 15% stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and 35.5% stake in Yahoo Japan.

The new company also named Eric Brandt chairman of the board, effective January 9.
Effectively, Verizon is paying $4.8 billion solely for Yahoo’s core internet business, leaving behind Yahoo’s 15% of Chinese retail giant Alibaba and a part of Yahoo Japan, which is a joint venture with Softbank. Those assets will continue to exist in a separate company that will now operate under the catchy Altaba name.

The terms of that deal could be amended – or the transaction may even be called off – after Yahoo last year disclosed two separate data breaches; one involving some 500 million customer accounts and the second involving over a billion.

Verizon executives have said that while they see a strong strategic fit with Yahoo, they are still investigating the data breaches.