Verizon is close to striking a deal to acquire Yahoo for roughly $5 billion, multiple media outlets are reporting.
Bloomberg, Reuters and Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with the matter on Friday and reported that Yahoo is leaning toward selling to Verizon after reviewing final bids that it received this week.
According to CNBC, a deal could be announced as early as next week. Sources told the network that Verizon’s bid to buy Yahoo’s core business includes real estate but not the intellectual property portfolio.
Yahoo and Verizon both declined TheWrap’s separate requests for comment.
On Monday, Yahoo reported earnings that coincided with Wall Street’s low expectations for the second quarter of 2016, but CEO Marissa Mayer claimed the company is making strides despite being for sale.
Mayer said Monday on a call with investors that she had nothing to announce regarding the company’s sale, but she admitted that it is “deep into the process.”
Yahoo reported revenue of $1.3 billion, up 5 percent year over year, while revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs dropped 19 percent to $842 million with adjusted earnings per share of nine cents. Wall Street analysts expected Yahoo to report net revenue of $840 million, excluding traffic acquisition costs and adjusted earnings of $148 million and adjusted EPS of 10 cents. Yahoo disclosed that during the 2016 Q2, it took goodwill impairment charges totaling of $482 million for Tumblr.
If Friday’s sale reports are accurate, it will be Mayer’s last earnings as CEO. Her reign atop Yahoo has been embattled almost since her arrival in 2012. Her task was to transform the tech company from a fading search giant, and it hasn’t been going too well.
Mayer’s pay in 2015 was $35.9 million, representing a 14.5 percent drop from the Yahoo CEO’s compensation in 2014, but she’ll get a $55 million golden parachute if the company is sold.