Verizon selling AOL,Yahoo unit for $5 bln

It's the further humbling of two former internet giants from the original tech boom.

Yahoo and AOL are being shed by Verizon, which is selling off the media unit that includes the two former tech darlings for $5 billion.

The deal announced Monday will offload Verizon Media to private equity fund Apollo Global Management.

Verizon bought AOL for $4.4 billion six years ago in a bet that a push into mobile video and targeted advertising would help the telecom giant find new growth avenues.

And then it acquired Yahoo's internet properties for about $4-1/2 billion in 2017, hoping the addition of Yahoo's 1 billion-plus users would further drive online ad revenue.

But the AOL-Yahoo acquisitions didn't bring in the dollars Verizon hoped for and now it is calling it quits.

Verizon will use the cash to better fight off competition from AT&T and T-Mobile as the battle over 5G wireless technology heats up.

Yahoo and AOL have struggled to regain their former glory as Google and Facebook dominate the online advertising market.

But Apollo still sees value in the unit that includes tech websites TechCrunch and Engadget, which took in $1.9 billion in the first quarter.

In a press release, Apollo said it was big believers in the growth prospects for the unit that will now go by the Yahoo name.

Shares of Verizon were up marginally on the deal.