Today Yahoo owns roughly 15 percent of Alibaba, holdings that are worth about $35 billion. The idea behind the name is that Altaba’s stock can now be tracked as an alternative to Alibaba because Yahoo owns a sizable chunk of the Chinese company.
The name change reflects just how far Yahoo has fallen. The company that was once an Internet giant and is still the third most visited Web property in the United States is now essentially a vehicle for holding Alibaba’s stock.
The new company, which will be publicly traded and until now has been referred to as RemainCo in security filings, also owns a 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, the company’s Japanese affiliate, and Yahoo’s cash, as well as a patent portfolio that is being sold off in a separate auction.
A Yahoo spokeswoman, Suzanne Philion, would not comment on the name. She emailed the following statement: “We are confident in Yahoo’s value and we continue to work towards integration with Verizon.”
The company also announced in the filings that Eric Brandt is now the chairman of Yahoo’s board. He is a former finance chief of semiconductor company Broadcom. Marissa Mayer remains chief executive and plans to step down from the board when the deal closes. Philion declined to comment further on these changes.