How the Yahoo deal affects its services

Verizon’s announcement that it is acquiring Yahoo’s operations is a turning point for an internet pioneer that claims a billion users visit its services each month.

In addition to Yahoo’s popular email service, Verizon is taking over content sites like Yahoo Sports and Yahoo News, as well as Yahoo-owned services that operate separately under their own brands, including the Tumblr social network and the Flickr photo-sharing service.

Here are answers to some common questions about the impact of the deal.

Q: What happens to my favorite Yahoo services now that Verizon is buying the company?

A: Nothing for now. The deal is not expected to close until early next year, so for the moment, Yahoo is operating like it always has.

After the deal closes, Verizon intends to keep Yahoo and its services as separate brands, according to Tim Armstrong, the chief executive of Verizon’s AOL unit. “Yahoo is one of the most powerful brands in the planet,” he said. “We will be investing in it.”

Q: Wait, AOL? Verizon owns AOL? So will my Yahoo email become AOL email?

A: No, Yahoo Mail is one of the company’s most successful services and Verizon plans to keep it separate.

Q: What about other Yahoo services, like fantasy sports and Yahoo Finance?

A: Armstrong said the two companies have not yet sat down to work out all the transition plans, but the intention is to keep Yahoo’s content sites and apps.

Q: Will Verizon keep Yahoo search? Will I still see the Yahoo search box in my Firefox browser?

A: The future of search is fuzzier. Yahoo’s chief executive, Marissa Mayer, has invested heavily in search, but the company has continued to lose ground to Google.

Armstrong was noncommittal on search, saying that would be a topic of discussion between the two companies. “Yahoo has products that have not launched yet on search,” he said, and Verizon wants to evaluate those.

Under Yahoo’s search partnership with Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, anyone who buys Yahoo must offer a search product through the end of 2019 or pay a hefty breakup fee.

Q: What about my personal data? Will Verizon share data about my cellphone use to Yahoo’s advertisers and will Yahoo use what it knows about my web surfing to sell ads on my phone?

A: The Federal Communications Commission fined Verizon in March for tracking people’s cellphone browsing habits without their consent. Now the company is banned from sharing data across its business units unless it gets the user’s permission.

But the FCC is considering broader rules to govern such data sharing, and Verizon is one of several companies lobbying to loosen the restrictions.