Right now, the transaction is scheduled to close in the current quarter, which means we could hear something official about the future of the Yahoo and AOL brand names before too long. That’s a bit later than originally anticipated; the delays came from Yahoo’s huge security breach and the subsequent restructuring of the deal that saw Verizon save $350 million on its purchase.
Update, 8PM ET: Yahoo Finance reporter Daniel Roberts published a story in which he says that the Yahoo brand is not in fact going away. Instead, it’ll be a company under the Oath “umbrella” of brands that’ll also include AOL properties like TechCrunch, The Huffington Post and Engadget. Indeed, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong mentioned 20 brands in his tweet earlier; now we have a bit more clarity on that. A source familiar with the situation independently confirmed these details to Engadget as well.
Even before the name change became official, the internet passed swift, merciless judgement:
My Twitter feed is 60% “Oath” jokes, and this is why I love Twitter.
— Shira Ovide (@ShiraOvide) April 3, 2017
My name suggestion for the combined websites will always be Verizon Zero Dawn
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) April 3, 2017
*Verizon owns AOL, Engadget’s parent company. However, Engadget maintains full editorial control, and Verizon will have to pry it from our cold, dead hands.
