The Verizon acquisition of Yahoo has now officially closed and Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, has resigned her position. The acquisition, estimated to be worth more than $4 billion, received shareholder approval last week, with Mayer being granted a 'golden parachute' of approximately $23 million in her exit from the company.

Verizon has stated that it is planning to combine Yahoo with its AOL assets to create a subsidiary called Oath, which will cover more than 50 media brands and over 1 billion customers globally. Tim Armstrong, the former CEO of AOL, has been chosen to lead the new conglomerate.

It is expected that nearly 15 percent of all Yahoo staff will be cut as a result of the acquisition, with roles in areas such as operations, sales and marketing being affected. In addition, several Board members have left Yahoo in the wake of Mayer's departure, including Jane Shaw, Maynard Webb Jr., David Filo, Richard Hill and Eddy Hartenstein. Verizon has no shortage of staff, as it currently employs more than 160,000 people and earned approximately $126 billion in sales revenues in 2016.

Despite all of the unpredictability and uncertainty inherent in today's ad tech world, it's still possible for the optimum outcome to manifest. Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's core assets is such an example.

Although the future will not necessarily be 100% rosy, it is surely the best current outcome for consumers, marketers and the industry as a whole. Verizon will certainly need to heed the lessons of poor previous mergers such as AOL - Time Warner.

Fortunately, there are many positives to focus on, such as both companies having impressive sales and industry knowledge expertise. In addition, there is the benefit of owning both production and distribution aspects of the system.

AOL is being acquired by Verizon in the mobile providers bid to disrupt the media world. Verizon is purchasing the media company for $4.4 billion in cash in hopes of becoming a major media and content player, not on the television but on the mobile phone. AOL's last merger did not go so well when they acquired Time Warner in hopes of getting distribution for its content and ad network. This time they are being acquired but the goal is the same.

Verizon is seeing subscriptions fall and while some business services and premium options are keeping the company profitable, they are hoping to keep their customer intact by adding these new content options. AOLs most notable content site is the Huffington Post but the company also has a very successful mobile advertising network.

More than half a million persons joined Verizon Communications Inc. as subscribers in the last quarter, which indicates the company's robustness even before the launch of the iPhone scheduled for February.

Analysts had expected to enroll 650,000 subscribers but the actual numbers were about 872,000 for the contract based plans. These plans based on contracts are the most lucrative for the company, and Verizon has confirmed that 75 percent of these subscribers went in for smart phones that have added fees for data.