Yahoo’s History and Acquisitions
– Yahoo was founded in January 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo as a website called ‘Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web.’
– In March 1994, the website was renamed Yahoo! and became known as the Yahoo Directory.
– The yahoo.com domain was registered on January 18, 1995.
– Yahoo was incorporated on March 2, 1995, and introduced its search engine function, Yahoo Search, in the same year.
– In 1997, Yahoo acquired Four11 Corporation.
– In 1998, Yahoo acquired GeoCities and became the first portal call.
– In 1999, Yahoo acquired Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion.
– In 2013, Yahoo acquired Tumblr.
– Yahoo acquired Rockmelt in 2013.
– Yahoo bought social investing platform Commonstock.
Yahoo’s Search Engine
– Yahoo started as a search engine and launched Yahoo Search in 1996.
– In 2000, Yahoo selected Google as its default search engine provider.
– Yahoo later developed its own search technology and dumped Google’s search technology.
– Yahoo’s search engine faced competition from Google and experienced a decline in market share.
– In 2009, Yahoo entered into a partnership with Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
Challenges and Layoffs
– After the 9/11 attacks, Yahoo’s stock hit an all-time low in 2001.
– In 2008, Yahoo faced financial challenges and announced layoffs.
– Microsoft made a bid to acquire Yahoo for $45 billion in 2008, which was eventually dropped.
– Yahoo’s CEO, Carol Bartz, was fired in 2011.
– Yahoo implemented job cuts to improve profitability in 2009.
– Yahoo experienced a $4.4 billion loss and announced a 15% workforce reduction.
– Yahoo’s valuation collapsed significantly.
– Yahoo faced financial challenges under Marissa Mayer’s leadership.
– Tech layoffs resulted in Yahoo slashing 20% of its workforce.
– Yahoo’s stock soared with buyback help.
Leadership Changes
– Carol Bartz replaced Jerry Yang as CEO in January 2009.
– Bartz was fired in September 2011 and replaced by interim CEO Tim Morse.
– Scott Thompson became CEO in January 2012, but several key executives resigned under his leadership.
– Ross Levinsohn served as interim CEO after Thompson’s firing in May 2012.
– Marissa Mayer was appointed president and CEO of Yahoo in July 2012.
– Marissa Mayer faced intense scrutiny during her tenure as CEO of Yahoo.
– Marissa Mayer resigned after Verizon completed the acquisition of Yahoo.
– Jim Lanzone was named the CEO of Yahoo.
– Tim Armstrong, former CEO of Oath, left the Verizon unit.
– Marissa Mayer’s resignation marked the end of an era for Yahoo.
Data Breaches and Security Issues
– Yahoo disclosed a data breach in 2016 affecting at least 500 million user accounts.
– Another separate data breach occurred in 2014, affecting at least one billion accounts.
– Four men, including two employees of Russia’s Federal Security Service, were indicted for their involvement in the hack.
– Hackers utilized stolen internal software to forge HTTP cookies.
– All 3 billion user accounts were affected by a 2013 theft.
– Hackers stole data on 500 million Yahoo users in 2014.
– Russian agents were found to be behind the Yahoo breach.
– Yahoo revealed that 1 billion user accounts were hacked.
– The estimate of breached Yahoo accounts was tripled to 3 billion.
– Yahoo provided notice to additional users affected by a 2013 data theft.
Yahoo! (/ˈjɑːhuː/, styled yahoo! in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Management and 10% by Verizon Communications.
![]() Logo used since 2019 | |
Type of business | Subsidiary |
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Type of site | Web portal and online services |
Founded | January 1994 |
Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Owners |
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Founder(s) | |
Products | List of products |
Revenue | $7.4 billion (2020) |
Employees | 8,600 (2017) |
Parent |
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URL | www |
Advertising | Yahoo! Ad Tech |
Registration | Optional |
Current status | Active |
It provides a web portal, search engine Yahoo Search, and related services, including My Yahoo!, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports and its advertising platform, Yahoo! Native.
Yahoo was established by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was one of the pioneers of the early Internet era in the 1990s. However, its use declined in the late 2000s as some of its services were discontinued, and it lost market share to Facebook and Google.