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Verizon!–Yahoo! takeover! inches! ahead!

The 1990s called and want their cool brands back

Verizon has decided its Yahoo! strategy is important enough to occupy the attention of the CEO of its AOL business unit.

Accordingly, Tim Armstrong has been set the task of ringing Marissa Mayer's doorbell, chocolates, flowers and a huge bag of money in hand.

Verizon had already (somewhat inexplicably) identified Yahoo! as a possible takeover target in December 2015. CFO Fran Shammo talked about the Purple Palace in terms of spectrum without identifying which spectrum he had in mind.

Apparently “the nostalgia disorder spectrum” is in the mix, if Yahoo!'s white knight's job is to deliver an AOL floppy disk.

Last week, Yahoo! announced that dealing with its 2015/16 US$4 billion loss will involve farewelling 15 per cent of its staff, and closing offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan.

Mayer reckons Tumblr, mail and search are the kinds of products that will lift Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web back to its former greatness.

It's not entirely insane, though. As Bloomberg notes, the billion worldwide users Yahoo! claims would be a much better target market for Verizon's planned go90 streaming service than AOL's paltry two million.

Bloomberg adds that as Google alumni, Mayer and Armstrong have known each other “for years”. Mwah, Darling! ®

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