Verizon Sells 90% of Media Division to Apollo for $5 Billion (1)

Verizon Communications Inc. agreed to sell its media division to Apollo Global Management Inc. for $5 billion, a move that will jettison once-dominant online brands like AOL and Yahoo.

The unit will be known as Yahoo after the close of the transaction, which is expected in the second half of this year, Verizon said in a statement Monday. Guru Gowrappan will remain chief executive officer of the media group. Verizon will keep a 10% stake in the business, it said, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.

With the sale, Verizon is unloading the remnants of an ambitious but distracting ...