This story has been updated to include Marissa Mayer’s Tumblr statement.
Verizon Communications (VZ) said it had agreed to buy Yahoo’s (YHOO) core internet business for $4.83 billion in cash, ending a lengthy sale process for the fading Web pioneer.
Buying Yahoo’s operations will boost Verizon’s AOL Internet business, which it bought last year for $4.4 billion, by giving it access to Yahoo’s advertising technology tools as well as other assets such as search, mail and messenger.
The deal marks the end of Yahoo as an operating company, leaving it with a 15% stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding and a 35.5% interest in Yahoo Japan Corp.
“The sale of our operating business, which effectively separates our Asian asset equity stakes, is an important step in our plan to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo,” Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said in a statement on Monday. One of the big questions during the acquisition process had been what the future holds for Mayer. But on her Tumblr feed Monday she wrote, “For me personally, I’m planning to stay.”
The sale does not include Yahoo’s cash, its shares in Alibaba, its shares in Yahoo Japan, Yahoo’s convertible notes, certain minority investments and Yahoo’s non-core patents.
The Alibaba and Yahoo Japan investments are worth about $40 billion, while Yahoo had a market value of about $37.4 billion as of Friday’s close.
