Verizon Communications Inc. would explore a possible acquisition of Yahoo! Inc. if the tech company’s board decides to sell it, said Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam.
McAdam, speaking Tuesday in New York, said it wasn’t clear what Yahoo’s board has planned for the company. in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and whether to seek a buyer for Yahoo’s Web businesses.
“We’d look at it like anything else,” McAdam said at the Business Insider Ignition conference.
Verizon acquired AOL Inc. for $4.4 billion earlier this year as part of a push into mobile video advertising. Yahoo owns online sports sites, financial and general news and advertising technology including BrightRoll, which Verizon might find attractive at the right price. Impediments to a sale of Yahoo are the fate of its stake in Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, and the tax implications of a sale of that unit.
Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said Monday that the company would look at a possible deal with Yahoo “if we see there is a strategic fit and it makes sense for our shareholders.”
In a bid to find new growth businesses, Verizon this year started go90, a free mobile video service with content aimed at teens and millennials that uses AOL’s ad-insertion technology.
Sarah Meron, a Yahoo spokeswoman, declined to comment.
