Verizon just moved one step closer to owning Yahoo — and laying off thousands of employees.
Yahoo shareholders voted Thursday to approve a revised agreement for Verizon to buy Yahoo’s core Internet assets for $4.48 billion, according to preliminary results from a special shareholder meeting.
The deal is now expected to close on Tuesday, according to both companies.
Once the acquisition is complete, Yahoo and AOL will form a new digital company under Verizon called Oath. Verizon expects to cut as many as 2,100 employees from the combined venture, or about 15% of the staff, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The layoffs are expected to be announced soon after the deal closes, according to the source.
“Oath’s strategy is to lead the global brand space,” an AOL spokesperson said in a statement to CNN Tech. “Consistent with what we have said since the deal was announced, we will be aligning our global organization to the strategy.”
The final vote comes nearly a year after the original acquisition was announced and follows plenty of speculation about whether the deal would actually go through.
Verizon agreed to cut the deal price by $350 million in February following Yahoo’s disclosures of two massive security breaches affecting more than one billion users.
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong will be in charge of Oath. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will not be part of the leadership team, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN Tech in April.
After the deal closes next week, what remains of Yahoo will be renamed Altaba Inc. It will effectively serve as a holding company for Yahoo’s large stake in Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company.
