WhereIsAtlas · Internet

Yahoo

The internet's first giant that fumbled the future

Transformed — The internet's first giant dominated the 1990s, then fumbled Google, Facebook and its own future - sold to Verizon in 2017.

Yahoo was the internet's first media giant. Founded in 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo as a directory of the web, it became the default homepage for a generation - a portal of search, news, mail and finance that at its dot-com peak in 2000 was valued at around $125 billion.

Then it repeatedly fumbled the future. In 1998 Yahoo reportedly passed on buying a search startup called Google; in 2006 it declined Facebook; its own search and ad business slowly bled to the two companies it had waved off. Years of revolving leadership and failed restructuring followed.

After a disastrous 2016 auction, Yahoo sold its core businesses to Verizon in 2017 for about $4.5 billion - a fraction of its peak. The name survives, but the independent giant that once ruled the web is gone. Its most valuable remaining asset was a stake in Alibaba, a piece of the future it also nearly wasted.

Timeline

  1. 1994 — A directory of the web: Yang and Filo launch Yahoo as a hand-curated web directory.
  2. 1998-2000 — The dot-com peak: Yahoo becomes the web's default portal, valued at roughly $125 billion.
  3. 1998-2006 — Fumbling the future: Yahoo declines Google and then Facebook, ceding the next era.
  4. 2008-16 — Years of drift: A revolving cast of CEOs and failed turnarounds bleed the company.
  5. 2017 — The Verizon sale: Yahoo sells its core business for about $4.5 billion.

Quick facts

Founded
1994, by Yang & Filo
Peak value
≈ $125B (2000)
Missed
Bought neither Google nor Facebook
Sold to
Verizon, 2017 (≈ $4.5B)
Crown jewel left
Its Alibaba stake

Lineage — where the name went

Yahoo split into two very different things in 2017: a holding company that kept the valuable Asian stakes, and a media business that was sold three times and ended up with the name it started with.

  1. 2005 — Yahoo acquired Alibaba (a stake that became worth far more than Yahoo itself)
  2. 2017 — Yahoo spun off Altaba (the holding company for the Asian stakes)
  3. 2017 — Yahoo acquired by Verizon (about $4.48bn for the core business)
  4. 2017 — Verizon created Oath / Verizon Media (Yahoo folded together with AOL)
  5. 2021 — Oath / Verizon Media acquired by Apollo Global Management (Apollo bought Verizon Media and restored the Yahoo name)

Entities in this tree: Yahoo (brand, 1994); Alibaba (company, 2005); Altaba (company, 2017); Verizon (company, 2017); Oath / Verizon Media (company, 2017); Apollo Global Management (company, 2021)

Sources

  1. Yahoo! - Wikipedia — Wikipedia (2026-02-09)
  2. Yahoo's fall: A steep decline for the internet giant — BBC News (2026-02-09)

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