Verizon may make a play for Yahoo after all.
Despite repeated denials that it had any interest in purchasing the troubled internet company, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said Friday on CNBC’s “Mad Money” the carrier is considering purchasing some Yahoo assets “at the right price.”
“We said on this show a month or so ago that we would look at it,” McAdam said. “We have to understand the trends that we’re seeing in their results now, but then at the right price I think marrying up some of their assets with AOL and the leadership would be good.”
According to McAdam, Verizon sees AOL as carrying the potential to become a “real growth engine” for the company.
Since its acquiring AOL six months ago, McAdam said Verizon has been feeding information from its mobile division into the “AOL engine” and has successfully driven $300 million in revenue from quarter to quarter. To continue the momentum, McAdam said it “might make some sense” to add pieces of newly acquired Millennial Media and potentially Yahoo into the mix.
“I think we can turn that into something special,” he said.
McAdam’s comments follow news in the middle of last week that Yahoo is laying off 1,700 employees and seeking to sell some of its patents, real estate and other holdings in an effort to shed weight and offset sinking revenue figures. Among the assets up for grabs are products like Yahoo Games, Yahoo TV and some of the company’s digital publications.
In the fourth quarter, Yahoo posted a 15 percent year-over-year decline in revenue to $1 billion as well as a quarterly loss of $4.4 billion. The company has projected that net revenue will continue to drop between 12 percent and 17 percent this year.
Though analysts have previously speculated that wireless giants like AT&T and Verizon may be interested in the company, executives from the latter carrier have heretofore attempted to shoot down the rumors.
In December, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said it was “premature” to say the carrier was considering a bid. At the end of last month, Verizon’s director of corporate communications Bob Varettoni told CTFN the rumors swirling about a Verizon bid were “false.”
