Verizon to rename Yahoo and AOL’s parent company as “Oath”

Updated on December 10, 2021

The latest step in the Yahoo saga continues, as Verizon finalizes its acquisition. Verizon’s announced on Monday that it plans to fold both Yahoo and AOL under the newly minted name “Oath.”

AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong tweeted the new name/logo Monday afternoon:

Billion+ Consumers, 20+ Brands, Unstoppable Team. #TakeTheOath. Summer 2017. pic.twitter.com/tM3Ac1Wi36

— Tim Armstrong (@tim_armstrong) April 3, 2017

The new name has a mixed response so far. TechCrunch titled its on the name “Yahoo + AOL = Oath, for some reason.” And that’s considering Verizon is TechCrunch’s corporate owner. Meanwhile, also-Verizon-owned Engadget wrote an article about previous lackluster corporate names, including the Tribune company last year renaming itself “Tronc.”

I’ll note that the name “Verizon” always struck me as an odd marketing-driven name. On the one plus side, I suppose odd names like Verizon and Tronc are at least easy to trademark.

Of course, if Yahoo weren’t so problematic, a name change might not be needed. I assume we’ll see if they’ll keep the Yahoo name for any of the email, web portal, etc. services. There’s also Yahoo’s myriad existing problems. If and when their email’s hacked again, I see a lot of headlines about a “broken Oath.”