Verizon completed its $4.48 billion acquisition of Yahoo’s operating business and combined the assets with its AOL arm to launch Oath, its new subsidiary.

In a statement, Verizon said Oath “begins operation today as a global leader in digital and mobile”, adding the subsidiary will control a “diverse house of more than 50 media and technology brands” through the combination of AOL with the Yahoo assets.

The US market leader is looking to boost its mobile media and advertising efforts and shift away from its reliance on traditional telecoms services.

In early June, it was reported around 2,100 employees of the combined workforce could be laid off at Oath due to personnel overlaps in certain departments.

Deal done
Completion of the deal for Yahoo, first announced last July, was indeed expected today (13 June) after Yahoo stockholders gave their official approval last week.

The deal of course hit several setbacks before finally being finalised, following revelations Yahoo suffered two major data hacks in 2013 and 2014.

Those security breaches led to Verizon negotiating a $350 million discount on the original $4.83 billion price agreed.

Tim Armstrong, former CEO of AOL, will assume the position as CEO of Oath, which will fall under Verizon’s Media and Telematics organisation.

He said the company had a portfolio of “dominating” consumer brands in news sports, finance, technology and entertainment, and lifestyle, “coupled with our market leading advertising technology platforms”.

“Now that the deal is closed, we are excited to set our focus on being the best company for consumer media, and the best partner to our advertising, content and publisher partners,” he said.

Marni Walden, president of Verizon Media and Telematics said closing the deal was a “critical step” in growing global scale for the operator’s digital media ambitions.

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has now stepped down from her role.

Yahoo will also change its name to Altaba, as previously announced.