Yahoo has said it will change its name to Altaba, assuming the pending $4.8bn (£3.95bn) sale of its core internet business to Verizon goes through - while chief executive Marissa Mayer will leave the board.
The new name will reflect the fact that what remains of the company will effectively be an investment company for its stakes in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, of which it owns about 15%, and Yahoo Japan, a joint venture with Softbank, of which Yahoo owns about 35%.
In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company also stated that after the sale, the board would be reduced to five directors – with Mayer, chairman Maynard Webb and Yahoo co-founder David Filo all set to stand down.
Last July, after Yahoo and Verizon reached an agreement on the acquisition, Mayer posted an open letter stating that she planned to stay on at Yahoo (the part of the business being acquired), saying: "I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you. It’s important to me to see Yahoo into its next chapter."
The deal was threatened, however, by the revelation last month that Yahoo had uncovered a massive data breach that saw user data from more than one billion accounts potentially compromised. This followed a separate attack, disclosed in September, which affected 500 million accounts.
Verizon said in a statement that it would "evaluate the situation as Yahoo continues its investigation," and would "review the impact of this new development before reaching any final conclusions."
(This article first appeared on CampaignLive.co.uk)
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