Many commenters seem to be under the impression that Yahoo was later sold for a mere $5B to Verizon, but this is not the case. MSFT's bid was for Yahoo includi

Many commenters seem to be under the impression that Yahoo was later sold for a mere $5B to Verizon, but this is not the case. MSFT's bid was for Yahoo including its stake in Alibaba, which had a far greater value than the parent company itself. The Verizon deal did NOT include the stake in Alibaba. This was spun off as a separate company Altaba under the ticker AABA. (edit: I should be more precise. This is why yahoo was spun off and sold. AABA is the remainder of the company, and retained the majority of the value. I heard previous plans to spin off the stake in Alibaba weren't workable due to issues around triggering a taxable event.) AABA's spinoff accounts for the large value discrepancy. Poorly written news articles portrayed this as losing out on a great deal but this simply was not the case. https://www.marketcaphistory.com/aaba/ https://www.marketcaphistory.com/aaba/