Verizon Set To Announce $5bn Yahoo Takeover

The $5bn (£3.8bn) sale of Yahoo (Hanover: YHO.HA - news) to US telecoms firm Verizon (NYSE: VZ - news) is expected to be confirmed later today.

The sale is reported to include its search and advertising businesses, including its email service and news pages.

The company will be left with its stakes in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, which together are worth around $40bn.

Verizon, one of the largest telecoms companies in the world, is expected to confirm the deal - and the end of Yahoo as an independent company - before markets open in the US.

The deal ends months of speculation about beleaguered Yahoo's future.

In February Yahoo confirmed it was drawing up an "aggressive strategic plan", after plans to spin-off its Alibaba stake fell through and in April it was reported it was inviting bidders to put forward offers.

Earlier this year it said it was cutting 15% of its staff in an effort to turn the company around after it made a $4.4bn loss in 2015 and its share price plummeted by 34%.

However, in the three months to the end of April, Yahoo reported a $99m (£68m) loss .

It is unclear whether Yahoo's chief executive Marissa Meyer, who joined four years ago to drive the company turnaround, will remain.

New (KOSDAQ: 160550.KQ - news) -York based Verizon may be best known in the UK for its link to Vodafone, which announced in 2013 that it was selling its 45% stake in their joint venture, Verizon Wireless, for £84bn.

Verizon is trying to grow its online presence, with an eye to challenging Google's supremacy.

Last year it bought AOL (Xetra: 6OL.DE - news) , whose brands include The Huffington Post, in a $4.4bn (£2.8bn) deal.

At the time, Verizon's chairman and chief executive, Lowell McAdam, said: "Verizon's vision is to provide customers with a premium digital experience based on a global multi-screen network platform."