Yahoo is majority owned by Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm that acquired a 90 percent stake in the company in 2021, with Verizon retaining the remaining 10 percent.
Yahoo was once one of the most visited websites on the internet, known for its search engine, email service, and news portal, and it remains a widely used platform for Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Finance.
Apollo bought Yahoo, which was operating as Verizon Media at the time, for approximately 5 billion dollars, a fraction of the roughly 44 billion dollars in value Yahoo represented at its peak in 2000.
So how did one of the original giants of the internet end up owned by a private equity firm instead of a tech company?
This guide covers Yahoo’s full ownership history, the Verizon and AOL era, the Apollo acquisition, and whether Yahoo services are still worth using today.
So lets get started.
Table of Contents
The Apollo Global Management Acquisition
Apollo Global Management completed its acquisition of Yahoo, then branded as Verizon Media, in September 2021 for about 5 billion dollars.
As part of the deal, Verizon kept a 10 percent minority stake in the newly independent company, which was rebranded back to simply Yahoo shortly after the sale closed.
Yahoo Under Verizon And AOL
Verizon acquired Yahoo’s core internet business in 2017 for approximately 4.48 billion dollars, merging it with AOL, which Verizon had purchased in 2015, to form Verizon Media Group.
The Verizon era of Yahoo was marked by major layoffs, disclosure of massive historical data breaches affecting billions of accounts, and declining relevance compared to Google and Facebook.
Yahoo Ownership History Before Verizon
Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Stanford students Jerry Yang and David Filo as a directory of websites, and it grew into a publicly traded internet giant during the dot com boom.
Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, became Yahoo CEO in 2012 and led the company through its final years as an independent public company before the Verizon sale.
Reporting on Yahoo’s decline often points to missed opportunities, including passing on an early chance to acquire Google and rejecting a 2008 buyout offer from Microsoft.
Yahoo Brands And Products Today
Under Apollo, Yahoo still operates Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, and Yahoo News, along with other properties like AOL, Engadget, and TechCrunch that came along with the Verizon Media acquisition.
Yahoo Finance in particular remains one of the most visited financial news and stock data websites, competing with platforms like Microsoft owned MSN Money.
Yahoo Leadership Under Apollo
Jim Lanzone became Yahoo CEO in 2023 after previously leading Tinder, and he has focused on rebuilding Yahoo Search and Yahoo Mail with renewed investment from Apollo.
Apollo has signaled long term interest in Yahoo, treating it as a turnaround investment rather than a business it plans to break apart and sell off in pieces.
Yahoo Versus Other Legacy Internet Brands
Yahoo’s trajectory mirrors other early internet giants like AOL and MySpace, which failed to adapt as quickly as newer competitors like Google and Facebook to mobile and search advertising trends.
Unlike MySpace, which largely faded into irrelevance, Yahoo retained enough daily active users in email and finance to remain commercially viable under new ownership.
Is Yahoo Still Worth Using
Yahoo Mail remains a popular free email service, particularly among longtime users, though it has faced criticism over ads and occasional account security concerns.
Trustpilot reviews of Yahoo show a mixed reputation, with complaints focused mostly on customer support access and account recovery issues rather than the core products themselves.
Yahoo Finance continues to be praised for free access to stock data and news, making it a genuinely useful tool for casual investors even though the broader Yahoo brand has lost much of its former prominence.
Frequently Asked Questions About Who Owns Yahoo
Who owns Yahoo in 2026?
Yahoo is majority owned by Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm that bought a 90 percent stake in 2021, while Verizon holds the remaining 10 percent.
Did Verizon sell Yahoo?
Yes, Verizon sold most of its stake in Yahoo, then called Verizon Media, to Apollo Global Management in a deal that closed in September 2021.
Is Yahoo still an internet company?
Yes, Yahoo still operates Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, and Yahoo News, along with AOL, TechCrunch, and Engadget under its current ownership.
Who founded Yahoo?
Yahoo was founded in 1994 by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo, who built it into one of the earliest major internet portals.
For more on how other legacy internet and tech brands are structured today, see who owns Google.
I am Jack Neel, a mechanical engineer, researcher, and writer. I created this website to share my knowledge about different brands and products with you. I research the manufacturers behind the brands and provide you with the information you need to make smart buying decisions.