In a typical year (excluding the Alibaba sale or big write-down last year), Yahoo makes as much profit as Verizon's entire wireline unit.[1] Selling part of the FiOS network for $10 billion to buy Yahoo for less than $5 billion is a no-brainer. It'd be better to buy a healthier tech company, obviously, but Yahoo is what's on the market.
[1] While costing about $4 billion a year to run, versus $35 billion a year for Verizon's wireline division.
[1] While costing about $4 billion a year to run, versus $35 billion a year for Verizon's wireline division.