After more than 20 years, Yahoo is officially sold to the highest bidder.
Verizon officially completed its deal to acquire Yahoo's core Internet assets for $4.48 billion after months of uncertainty about the deal, both companies announced Tuesday.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is resigning from the company. She will receive a $23 million severance package, according to an earlier company filing.
"Given the inherent changes to my role, I'll be leaving the company," Mayer wrote in an email to the company. "However, I want all of you to know that I'm brimming with nostalgia, gratitude and optimism."
"Verizon wishes Mayer well in her future endeavors," the company said in a statement.
Yahoo and AOL will form a new digital media company under Verizon called Oath. Verizon's goal is to use Yahoo's enormous reach to compete with the likes of Facebook and Google for online advertising.
Verizon expects to cut as many as 2,100 employees from the combined venture, or about 15% of the staff, according to a source familiar with the matter.
What remains of Yahoo will be renamed Altaba Inc. It will effectively serve as a holding company for Yahoo's large stake in Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company.
The deal's close comes nearly a year after the acquisition was first announced. The acquisition was thrown into doubt after Yahoo disclosed two massive security breaches affecting more than one billion users.
Verizon eventually agreed to move forward after cutting the price tag by $350 million and requiring Yahoo to split the cost of any legal liabilities resulting from the breaches.
Yahoo originally offered a directory of websites to guide users through the new world of the Internet. It was almost synonymous with the Internet itself for much of the 1990s with a market value that topped $100 billion around the dot-com boom.
The acquisition marks the end of an era for an Internet icon.
