SoftBank buys perpetual Yahoo trademark license in $1.6bn deal

Z Holdings, a division of SoftBank, has purchased the Yahoo Japanese trademark perpetually and related tech infrastructure for $1.6bn in a deal with Verizon Media.

Yahoo Japan is currently the country’s most trafficked news website and it was under temporary ownership of Z Holdings. Yahoo Japan paid a regular royalty for the rights to use the Yahoo brand name in Japan and associated technologies. Those royalties will now stop in lieu of a one-time upfront payment.

In a press statement from Z Holdings, the company said that “Although the Yahoo Japan License Agreement will be terminated, Yahoo Japan and Verizon Media will retain their cooperative business and technology relationship. Yahoo Japan will continue to deliver more convenient and innovative services under the ‘Yahoo! JAPAN’ brand, based on its mission statement: ‘UPDATE JAPAN.’”

The resolution of the agreement was one of the remaining issues to figure out in Apollo’s $5bn buyout of Verizon Media.

Verizon is offloading its media businesses including Yahoo and AOL to Apollo Global after struggling to compete with internet giants. The $5bn deal is set to close in the second half of 2021.