NEW: In 2021, Apollo acquired a massive internet business for ~$5B. Just 5 years later, it's become *one of the fastest-returning deals in the firm's history.* 700M monthly users. Billions in revenue. And an enormous distribution advantage that would be nearly impossible to replicate today. Apollo's Reed Rayman recruited Jim Lanzone (@jlanzone) to lead the turnaround. The company? @Yahoo. I sat down with CEO Jim Lanzone, one of the internet industry's most accomplished turnaround executives, to go inside @apolloglobal's PE M&A playbook for Yahoo, the economics of the acquisition, & why this may be one of the most underrated assets in tech. The numbers: › ~$5B acquisition › 700M monthly users, including 100M+ each across Yahoo Finance & Sports › 75% direct traffic, with ~75% of daily users logged in › Hundreds of millions in annual ad-tech losses addressed through restructuring › Major divestitures including AOL, TechCrunch & Edgecast › One of Apollo's fastest-returning deals, with Jim saying they're now "playing with house money" › Newer search companies valued at 6X Yahoo despite having a fraction of its users, revenue & profitability But the most interesting part of this deal is the operator. Before Yahoo, Jim helped drive a 50X stock increase at Ask Jeeves, grew CBS Interactive from 70M to 220M users, and led Tinder. And unlike the traditional PE playbook of aggressive cost extraction, PE micromanagement, Apollo backed an experienced product executive to restructure the business, rebuild its leadership, & reinvest in growth. Now Yahoo is moving from turnaround to comeback, with an entirely rebuilt product ecosystem, its own AI search engine through Yahoo Scout, and a potential path back to the public markets. We get into what it's really like operating under Apollo, the leadership decisions behind the turnaround, the value of internet distribution at scale, and why some startups with less than 0.1% of Yahoo's users command higher valuations. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 (00:00) Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo (01:33) How Apollo bought Yahoo for $4.8B (04:16) Taking over a company in the middle of COVID (07:22) Is private equity really the villain? (12:42) The mistake that handed Google the internet (16:09) Where Yahoo's 700M monthly users come from (17:07) Why Yahoo sold AOL & TechCrunch (21:21) "You can't skip levels of the video game" (27:58) Why people still trust Yahoo in the AI era (30:26) How Yahoo Scout competes with ChatGPT & Perplexity (33:48) Saying no to the AI gold rush? (37:31) From turnaround to comeback (39:42) One of the fastest paybacks in Apollo history (42:50) The biggest mistake companies make at scale (44:21) Silicon Valley startups are now worth more than Yahoo with 0.1% of its users (46:25) Why Yahoo is ready for the next crash (48:57) Barry Diller, Tinder & the tweet that predicted Yahoo (54:36) Is Yahoo finally back?

I wrote about Drake Maye and the Patriots offense. sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article…

you can just do things (so I'm told) Thank you @Nasdaq

The new Copilot is Microsoft’s bet that the AI race is moving from models to products. It doesn’t need to own the best model if Copilot can choose among them and keep the customer inside Microsoft. The potential secret weapon is Autopilot (what I’ve been calling Muse for Business). It knows your workflows, sits across the apps and data you already use, and keeps working even when you step away. It’s a preview of the battle to come in enterprise AI. OpenAI and Anthropic are racing from models into products. Can they build their own version of this? And can they match Microsoft on the boring-but-critical stuff: permissions, identity, auditability and control, as agents become more autonomous? My full conversation with @satyanadella. We also talk open vs. closed models, US-China Summit, regulation and the infrastructure buildout. 00:00 Microsoft’s new Copilot 02:02 Why not just give us Autopilot? 05:18 Who pays for always-on AI? 08:06 Copilot picks the model 10:27 Chinese models and OpenAI’s lead 12:04 Competing with OpenAI and Anthropic 13:17 US–China AI talks 16:11 Does AI need new rules? 18:05 The data center backlash 20:40 Is AI being overbuilt? 23:44 Keeping humans in control

The Yahoo Fantasy Expert League standings after Week 1 👀

I have 75+ blurbs for Week 1 RBs and WRs here. Continuing to update rankings, too. sports.yahoo.com/author/hayd…

Yahoo Finance and journalist @dee_bosa are launching a new show covering AI, tech, and how they are reshaping global markets. Her show will stream on weekdays from a new studio in San Francisco and will launch this fall. Stay tuned for additional details in the coming weeks!

The Los Angeles Rams seem to think they've solved jet lag. The farthest-flung game in NFL history will put their audacious approach to the test. sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article…