Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam thinks Yahoo might make a good fit for his company if it goes on the auction block.
McAdam said there have been no discussions with Yahoo so far, and that it appears that Yahoo’s board hasn’t made up its mind about whether to sell the company’s core internet business yet.
“As far as we know it’s not for sale,” McAdam said on stage at Business Insider’s IGNITION conference on Tuesday.
Expanding upon comments made by Verizon’s CFO on Monday, McAdam said if “it turned out that parts of it, or all of it were for sale, we’d look at it like anything in the digital media area at this point, because it’s so hot.”
Buying Yahoo might seem redundant for Verizon, given that it just spent $4.4 billion to acquire AOL earlier this year. But McAdam said there could be parts of Yahoo that would enhance its AOL business.
He explained that Verizon has a three-tiered business strategy, focused on internet and TV connectivity; platforms such as its go90 video service and AOL’s advertising technology; and specific content or applications for areas such as healthcare or the internet of things.
“AOL fit in perfectly with that strategy. And if there were pieces of Yahoo that augmented AOL, perhaps. But again, way premature. Their board hasn’t made any decisions and there have been no discussions. And we’re not getting ahead of our headlights here. We’ve got plenty to do,” McAdam said.
