Verizon Kills Oath Brand, Introduces the Verizon Media Grou
Beginning January 8, 2019, Verizon Media Group will replace the Oath brand, a name that Verizon hoped would give fresh life to a collection of aging businesses that includes AOL and Yahoo.
The move to abandon Oath was expected after a shake-up in November. At the time, the telecom giant shunted Oath to the end of the division’s name, calling it “Verizon Media Group/Oath.” This month, Verizon also wrote down the business by $4.6 billion. That erased almost half the value of the entity, which sells online advertising and houses sites.
The task of reinvigorating Verizon Media Group falls to Guru Gowrappan, who inherited the role from AOL veteran Tim Armstrong. The business is working on “engaging ad formats” and other concepts like more personalized publishing.