Aspen Institute CEO Isaacson Weighs in on Verizon (VZ), Yahoo Deal on CNBC

Walter Isaacson appeared on CNBC's 'Squawk Alley' on Monday morning to discuss the deal between Verizon (VZ) and Yahoo! (YHOO).
By Amanda Schiavo ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Writer, journalist and CEO of Aspen Institute Walter Isaacson appeared on CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Monday morning to discuss the deal between Verizon (VZ) - Get Report and Yahoo! (YHOO).

It was announced earlier this morning that wireless carrier Verizon is acquiring Internet giant Yahoo for $4.83 billion. The deal must still be approved by regulators and is expected to be finalized by the 2017 first quarter.

Isaacson, known for his biography of Apple (AAPL) founder Steve Jobs, noted that one of Yahoo's biggest issues was never defining what the company was.

"Over and over again from [Former CEO] Jerry Yang and [Founder] David Filo when the founded it, all the way through the Terry Semels, you were never quite sure what Yahoo was doing," Isaacson said.

"What Verizon can do is integrate this so that you're getting everything from what Netflix (NFLX) and Hulu does to what NBC and Disney (DIS) do to what a company like Google (GOOGL) does, which is giving you connectivity, giving you content and giving you community," he added.

Isaacson believed Yahoo missed out on the social network community revolution, noting that Verizon has to expand its footprint "so it's not just a mobile carrier for some people but is competing nationwide."

Shares of Verizon are lower by 0.52% to $55.81 on Monday morning. Yahoo stock is lower by 2.39% to $38.44 today.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings has set a "buy" rating and a score of A on Verizon Communications stock. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that TheStreet Ratings covers.

The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, revenue growth, expanding profit margins, growth in earnings per share and increase in net income. TheStreet feels its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that it evaluated.

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: VZ

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