According to Verizon Media CEO, Guru Gowrappan, the company is not selling HuffPost.
“We are not selling HuffPost,” said Gowrappan, speaking at the Code Media conference in L.A. Tuesday. “It’s so core to our content… We are focusing on creating good journalism, and giving valued content to consumers.”
However, according to a report by Financial Times, Verizon had been looking for buyers to sell off HuffPost. So, it could be now that the company failed to find a buyer willing to pay the right price.
Verizon Media’s revenue streams include advertising, subscriptions and transactions and e-commerce. In the last category, Gowrappan cited the launch of Yahoo Sportsbook to allow mobile sports betting. Gambling is “a massive thing we’re doing with transactions,” Gowrappan said.
Rumors about Verizon selling off HuffPost came after the telco has sold off multiple pieces of the former Yahoo and AOL groups.
Verizon Media revenue in the third quarter of 2019 was $1.8 billion
The telco spent around $10 billion to acquire Yahoo and AOL, merging them under the Oath operating division under then-CEO Tim Armstrong. However, the business continued to decline. Verizon then installed Gowrappan, previously a top exec at China’s Alibaba Group, as CEO of what is now called Verizon Media in Oct. 2018.
