Yahoo and AOL are changing hands again.  Verizon, which purchased AOL in 2015 and Yahoo in 2017, is now selling them to private equity company Apollo Global Management for $5 billion.  Verizon merged AOL and Yahoo into a subsidiary called Oath in 2017, eventually rebranding it into Verizon Media. The new company, in which Verizon will retain a 10 percent stake, will be rebranded as just "Yahoo."  Verizon originally acquired AOL for $4.4 billion and Yahoo for $4.5 billion, which makes this a pretty bad deal, overall, for Verizon. However, Verizon Media did do well in 2020, posti ..read more

Privacy Please is an ongoing series exploring the ways privacy is violated in the modern world, and what can be done about it. Smartphones are intimate companions: We cradle them in our hands, and hold them close to our chests. They greet us each morning, and whisper in our ears at night. We tell them our secrets. Unfortunately, when it comes to keeping those secrets, our phones have mixed allegiances.  On Feb. 23, T-Mobile, which completed its merger with Sprint in April of 2020, announced that it intends to use customers' "web and device usage data" for third-party advertising. In othe ..read more

This probably wouldn't merit any discussion if Verizon hadn't been so unnecessarily shady. It's tough when your phone battery drains fast, but most people recognize that new features and tech can have that effect. In a Sunday morning tweet, the wireless provider offered up a suggestion for customers struggling with a fast-draining battery. And while the substance of the advice boils down to "turn off 5G if your phone supports it," that's not actually what Verizon's tweet said. Are you noticing that your battery life ? is draining faster than normal? One way to help conserve battery life is ..read more

If you call Verizon looking for support, don't be surprised when Google answers the phone. This week, Verizon announced that it has started piloting Google's Cloud Contact Center Artificial Intelligence in a bid to deliver, "a more natural and streamlined digital experience." Verizon believes using Google's tech will lead to shorter call times and more satisfied customers, with the added bonus of the company being able to deal with more customers calling each day. Shankar Arumugavelu, global CIO & SVP, Verizon, commented, "Verizon's commitment to innovation extends to all aspects of the c ..read more

Mark Zuckerberg can definitely hear Verizon now.  The telecommunications giant announced Thursday that it is immediately ceasing all advertising on Facebook. So reports CNBC, which notes that Verizon is joining the likes of Patagonia, REI, and Ben & Jerry's in financially distancing itself from the controversial social media platform.  In an emailed statement to Mashable, a Verizon spokesperson chalked the move up to vague displeasure with varying violations of unspecified policies.  "Our brand safety standards have not changed," a Verizon spokesperson told Mashable. "We ha ..read more

It took a couple of years, but Motorola's finally back in the flagship game.  On Wednesday, the company unveiled the Motorola Edge+ complete with a nearly bezel-less display and a 108-megapixel camera sensor. (Take that Galaxy S20 Ultra!) Available May 14, the device will set you back $999 and is exclusive to Verizon. As far as specs go, the Edge+ has some noteworthy features — like a headphone jack — but much of the company's focus is on its display.  The Edge+ sports a 6.7-inch FHD+ OLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ certification. But what's particularly interesting ..read more

Verizon is still rolling out 5G expansion in locked-down cities and is on track to have 60 5G cities by the end of the year, says Heidi Hemmer, the carrier's VP of technology. "There's a calendar to launch more 5G cities over the next quarter, [but] we're not doing marketing launches right now just because of everything that's going on," she says. "We're on track for the additional 30 this year, and we continue to expand coverage in the 30 that we launched last year. In Chicago, we have three times the nodes we did a year ago." Verizon's 5G launched almost exactly a year ago in Chicago and Mi ..read more

Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T can definitely hear the FCC now.  The nation's largest mobile providers are facing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in fines after the Federal Communications Commission determined the companies didn't adequately protect customers' location data. At issue was the practice of selling customers' real-time location data to third parties — data which then ended up in the hands of bounty hunters, debt collectors, and other questionable parties.  The news, reported by the Wall Street Journal, follows a Jan. 31 announcement by the FCC that at least on ..read more

It would seem that the corporate sponsors of the RSA security conference are no match for IRL viruses.  Conference organizers announced Friday that Verizon has joined the growing ranks of companies bailing on the annual San Francisco cybersecurity event, which is slated to begin on Feb. 24. Following IBM and AT&T, Verizon is the latest company to pull out at the last minute, and, according to the RSA, the blame lies on the coronavirus — officially dubbed COVID-19.  "We learned today that Verizon has decided to no longer participate in RSA Conference 2020 as a Gold Sponsor," reads the state ..read more

Huawei has yet another legal skirmish on its hands. The Chinese telecom giant announced in a press release on Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit against Verizon. The suit, filed in U.S. District Courts for Eastern and Western Districts of Texas, accused Verizon of repeatedly using 12 Huawei patents without permission or, more importantly, paying licensing fees. "Verizon's products and services have benefited from patented technology that Huawei developed over many years of research and development," Huawei chief legal officer Dr. Song Liuping said in the statement. SEE ALSO: Verizon launches ..read more