Verizon selling Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm for $5 billion

AOL and Yahoo are being sold again, this time to a private equity firm. Verizon will sell Verizon Media, which consists of the pioneering technology platforms, to Apollo Global Management in a $5 billion deal.

Verizon said Monday that it will keep a 10% stake in the new company, which will be called Yahoo — omitting the iconic exclamation point that has endured, arguably past its prime, for so many years. "Dropping the infamous '!' at the end of the Yahoo moniker, Apollo is signaling a shift in direction," Raymond James analysts said Monday in a note to investors. "With an impressive count of daily users, including a significant and extremely sticky base of email customers .... the PE guys have a good opportunity to mine cash while shifting the business in favor of newer online trends, and we expect a full rebranding is in store."