Business

Yahoo's evolution from rising to fading internet star

Posted July 25, 2016 7:00 am

By The Associated Press

FILE - In thia March 3, 1997, file photo, Yahoo co-founders David Filo, left, and Jerry Yang hold up a fish prop in Filo's office in Santa Clara, Calif. On Monday, July 25, 2016, Verizon formally announced that it is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion, marking the end of an era for a company that once defined the internet. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file) The Associated Press

1994

Stanford University computer graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo begin compiling "David's and Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" in a trailer on campus. Within a few months, they change the name to "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," which is abbreviated to Yahoo.

1995

Yahoo incorporates as a company, raises its first $1 million in venture capital and hires Tim Koogle as CEO to replace Yang.

1996

Yahoo prices its initial public offering of stock at a split-adjusted 54 cents per share. The shares closed at a split-adjusted $1.375 on the first day of trading. Its shares finished at $39.38 last week.

1997

Yahoo launches its free email service after acquiring the technology in a $94 million purchase of Four11.

1999

Yahoo buys Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion, giving it key technology to stream audio over the Internet. Broadcast.com founder Mark Cuban sold most of his Yahoo stock before the dot-com crash to become billionaire.

2000

Yahoo's stock peaks at a split-adjusted $125, giving the company a market value of about $130 billion.

Shortly after, Yahoo hires Google to power its search engine results. As part of the deal, Yahoo puts Google's brand next to its search engine box, helping to raise the profile of a company that would play a pivotal role in Yahoo's demise.

2001

Yahoo hires former Warner Bros. movie studio chief Terry Semel as its CEO to replace Koogle.

2003

Yahoo buys Overture Services for $1.3 billion in one of a series of deals aimed at challenging Google's leadership in internet search.

2004

Yahoo drops Google as its search engine provider. Later in the year, Google went public and Yahoo began selling some of the stock that it received in its rival as part of the 2000 search engine deal and a legal dispute over alleged patent settlements. Yahoo reaped a nearly $1.4 billion profit by selling all of its Google stock.

Google shares, now traded as Alphabet Inc., have quadrupled since Yahoo disposed of its stake.

2005

Yahoo invests $1 billion to acquire a 40 percent stake in Alibaba Group, then a small internet startup in China. Yahoo eventually sold Alibaba stock worth nearly $17 billion during 2013 and 2014. It still owns about 384 million shares of Alibaba stock currently worth about $32 billion.

2007

Semel resigns under shareholder pressure and Yahoo names Yang as his replacement.

2008

Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion. The bid is eventually raised to $47 billion before Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer abruptly rescinds the offer after Yang demands even more money.

Activist investor Carl Icahn launches an attempt to overthrow Yahoo's board before reaching a settlement that gives him a seat in the boardroom.

Yang ends the year by resigning as CEO.

2009

Yahoo names longtime technology executive Carol Bartz as its new CEO. Bartz negotiates a deal to run Yahoo's search engine on Microsoft's Bing technology for the next decade.

2011

Yahoo fires Bartz as its CEO, and names Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse as its interim leader.

2012

Yahoo hires former PayPal executive Scott Thompson as CEO. Another activist investor, Daniel Loeb, threatens a shareholder mutiny and then discovers Thompson's official biography included a fictitious college degree. Thompson steps down as CEO after just four months, leaving Ross Levinsohn as the company's interim leader.

Later in the year, Yahoo persuades Marissa Mayer to defect from Google to become its CEO.

2013

Mayer buys internet blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion, in the biggest deal of her tenure. Yahoo has absorbed $712 million in accounting charges to reflect Tumblr has lost nearly two-thirds of its value since the purchase.

2015

Mayer begins year by promising that Yahoo will complete a tax-free spin-off of its Alibaba stake into a new holding company call Aabaco. Mayer calls off the proposed spin-off at the end of the year, citing uncertainty whether the tax dodge would work as envisioned.

2016

As Mayer begins to lay off 15 percent of Yahoo's workforce, the company's board opens the bidding for Yahoo's internet operations in February.

On Monday, Verizon agreed to buy Yahoo for $4.83 billion. Yahoo will be rolled into Verizon's AOL operations.

FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2005, file photo, Yahoo co-founders Jerry Yang, left, and David Filo pose for a portrait in the company's headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. On Monday, July 25, 2016, Verizon formally announced that it is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion, marking the end of an era for a company that once defined the internet. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File) The Associated Press

FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 9, 1997, file photo, Mike Nelson, sales director of Yahoo Inc., center left, and William J. Brodsky, president and CEO of the Chicago Board Options Exchange, along with market-makers start trading of the Yahoo stock at the exchange in Chicago, as the options exchange began trading Yahoo options. On Monday, July 25, 2016, Verizon formally announced that it is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion, marking the end of an era for a company that once defined the internet. (AP Photo/Charles Bennett, File) The Associated Press

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, file photo, a news ticker in New York's Times Square displays an announcement that Yahoo will name Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz as its new CEO, ending Yahoo's two-month search to replace co-founder Jerry Yang, who surrendered the CEO reins after potentially lucrative deals with rivals Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. both collapsed. On Monday, July 25, 2016, Verizon formally announced that it is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion, marking the end of an era for a company that once defined the internet. (AP Photos/Bebeto Matthews, File) The Associated Press

FILE - In this March 2, 2010, file photo, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz gestures during a news conference at Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. During her tenure as CEO, Bartz negotiated a deal to run Yahoo's search engine on Microsoft's Bing technology for the next decade. Bartz was fired from Yahoo after two and a half years as CEO. On Monday, July 25, 2016, Verizon formally announced that it is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion, marking the end of an era for a company that once defined the internet. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File) The Associated Press

FILE - In this Monday, May 20, 2013, file photo, a news headline about the Tumblr sale to Yahoo scrolls on a building in New York's Times Square. On Monday, July 25, 2016, Verizon formally announced that it is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion, marking the end of an era for a company that once defined the internet. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) The Associated Press

FILE - In this Monday, May 20, 2013, file photo, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, right, and Tumblr Chief Executive David Karp pose for photographs after a news conference in New York, as Mayer announced that Yahoo was buying internet blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion. On Monday, July 25, 2016, Verizon formally announced that it is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion, marking the end of an era for a company that once defined the internet. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File) The Associated Press

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