Verizon Communications Inc.'s Oath Inc. is taking full control of Yahoo7 by acquiring Seven West Media Ltd.'s 50% stake in their joint venture.
Founded in 2006, Yahoo7 is a joint venture between Yahoo! and Seven West Media. A media and publishing company which reaches almost half of the Australian population, Yahoo7 operates websites including the Yahoo7 homepage, 7News, 7Sport and Yahoo Finance, lifestyle and entertainment destination Be and email service Yahoo7 Mail.
The transaction, which is expected to be completed in August, will see CEO Ed Harrison, CFO Penny Diamantakiou, Chief Technology Officer Paul Russell and Director of Product Mark Robinson departing Yahoo7.
Meanwhile, Yahoo7 Chief Revenue Officer Paul Sigaloff has been promoted to managing director of Oath Australia and New Zealand.
Seven West Media CEO Tim Worner said the company spent 18 months executing a new strategy to control the distribution and monetization of its digital products and was seeing "strong audience and revenue growth" as a result.
"The natural next step of that strategy is to sell our stake in Yahoo7," Worner said.