Verizon says its media business is essentially worthless

Verizon just admitted that its media business, Oath, is essentially worthless.

Verizon (VZ) announced Tuesday that it would take a $4.6 billion writedown on its the media unit, which includes Yahoo and AOL.

Oath is now worth just $200 million, according to Verizon. That's a stunning decrease in value since it formed in 2017. Verizon said Oath was worth $4.8 billion when it last accounted for the company's goodwill valuation.

Verizon snapped up a number of legacy media brands in recent years to create Oath. It bought Yahoo for $4.5 billion in 2017 and AOL, which owns HuffPost, for $4.4 billion in 2015.

The telecommunications giant said the integration of Yahoo and AOL didn't meet expectations.

Oath "has experienced increased competitive and market pressures throughout 2018 that have resulted in lower than expected revenues and earnings," according to a filing with the SEC Tuesday. Facebook, Google and Amazon are s---ing up ad dollars, forcing publishers to search for other streams for revenue.

The Verizon media unit's poor performance led the company to make "unfavorable adjustments to Oath's financial projections" for the next five years.

Verizon plans to focus more on wireless technology and less on content and distribution.

This summer, Verizon replaced CEO Lowell McAdam with Hans Vestberg, the telecom company's former chief technology officer.

In September, Oath CEO Tim Armstrong left. He was a driving force behind Verizon's media acquisitions. Armstrong was replaced by K. Guru Gowrappan, Oath's president and former chief operating officer.

Verizon announced Monday that 10,400 management employees had accepted voluntary buyout deals, out of 44,000 who were eligible. The buyouts are part of a plan to cut costs and shift investments into wireless and 5G.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/11/media/verizon-oath-valuation/index.html

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Not media business. Customer intelligence business.

Now you might see how the miserable Hum device fits into the big picture. It was just as much an account add-on as an additional method of building up a dossier of intelligence information on their own customers (primarily to target and sell advertising, but not restricted to that one purpose).

AT&T wants to who— out their own customers? Let them win that fight! Verizon might actually have its first real chance of distinguishing itself as a major carrier with privacy and integrity. Go figure, right? Even if it was for financial reasons, they're arriving at the right answer.

Since Verizon is paying 2.4 billion in dividends on ourstanding shares per quarter, it seems they might consider sending a bit of the pain of failed acquisitions to the shareholders and recoup the Marni Walden whoops fairly quickly.

Can't see how RIF's ad nauseum is ok, but punishing shareholders isn't...

Lets see hum,go90,aol,yahoo total billions to buy,now all garbage thanks to lowell ,they should tske those losses out of his pension,ok upper management make bad decision so lets just rif,and force good people out of good jobs,..yeah your a real great company....

@jna that would be pretty stupid from a tax perspective. they wrote it down as worthless because it's worthless. And why not? Everyone knows that digital print journalism isn't worth a damn thing with Google/Facebook s---ing all the ad dollars. The battle is lost. The only competitive advantage they had, p0rn, they just threw in the trash with Tumblr, deciding it's not part of their business model. AOl/Yahoo/HuffPo and the rest of it no one cares about. Even the New York Times, Time Magazine/LA Times can only survive in the arms of philanthropic billionaires, everyone else needs to be part of Facebook/Google/Amazon/Apple increasing media footprint or die. No one anywhere looks to be having a positive EBITDA footprint five years hence in the face of Google/Facebook duopoly.

No she'll game, Aol, Yahoo an the rest where headed to the junk heap, just like Netscape. Surprised VZ didn't buy that brower and try to resurrect it. remember the people who did these purchases came out if VZW. They believe money grew on trees and phones weren't a commodity. Billions wasted on that and the rebranding. Lowell should have been out year's ago. When all you can do is RIF, you should be out.

Marnie just f'd you all in the a**

Uh...

G----ie and Pa----ni

Probably have a big R.I.F on July 1st. 2019. Glad I got the enhanced package. Thank you Verizon.

10,400 Verizon employees paid for that by taking VSP!

Everyone knew those were terrible purchases. Lowell should have been canned for that idea!

Do I need to shut down my Yahoo mail yet?

Just think how great they’ll play it when they increase the evaluation next year.

Sometimes it’s just a shell game.

Snip...snip...snip....

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Verizon says its media business is essentially worthless

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