Last week, Verizon confirmed that AOL & Yahoo would be merged under a new umbrella brand called Oath. The general expectation is that combining the two will help Verizon scale its ad tech opportunity by better connecting advertisers with content across these platforms – which themselves already include many disparate sub-brands acquired through past acquisitions and mergers.
There are already a lot of questions, and some suspicions, around this move. Can the sheer number of brands involved ever become a cohesive unit the way Verizon wants them to be? Is there actually any potential for Oath to compete successfully with Google and Facebook, the current leaders for ad tech dollars? How will Verizon take advantage of the recent change to internet privacy rules and their access to user browsing data play out with this new brand?
With the name “Oath,” we think Verizon hopes to suggest some type of promise to their customers, but for now we’re mostly interested in their promise for more details they say will be coming this summer. We’ll be watching for them closely.
Here are a few recent articles to help get you up to speed on observations so far:
- “Verizon to Take ‘Oath’ as New Company to Run Yahoo, AOL” – from The New York Times (4/3/17)
- “Will it blend? Oath will combine disparate AOL-Yahoo ad tech assets” – from Digiday (4/13/17)
- “Oath isn’t just a terrible name — it’s going to be a nightmare ad-tracking machine” – from The Verge (4/5/17)
- “What Is Verizon Promising With Its New Oath?” – from TechNewsWorld (4/4/17)
- “Yahoo And AOL Move In Together Under ‘Oath,’ Verizon’s New Digital Arm” – from NPR (4/5/17)