AOL Owner to Go Public at over $18B Valuation
Yahoo, the owner of AOL, is planning to go public at a valuation exceeding $18 billion, marking a return to the public markets after being taken private by Apollo Global Management in 2021.
Background
- Apollo Global Management, a massive private-equity firm (over $600B in assets), bought Yahoo (which included AOL) from Verizon in 2021 for $5B. They are now taking that combined entity — called Yahoo — public again.
- The core business is still Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, and AOL's ad-tech platform, mostly serving older/declining web portals.
- The $18B+ valuation is roughly 3.5x what Apollo paid, reflecting a bet on ad-tech profitability and AI improvements, not portal growth.
- This is a "take-private-then-re-IPO" play: Apollo bought it cheap, cut costs, restructured, and is now cashing out via public markets.
- Why it matters: It tests whether old internet brands can command high valuations in a market dominated by Google, Meta, and TikTok. It also signals how active private-equity is in resurrecting faded tech assets.