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Gerald Levin, known to many as Jerry, wasn't flamboyant. He wasn’t characterized, as were many of his media business contemporaries, by extravagant hobbies, odd peccadillos, inspiring speeches or a spicy personal life. He could be testy, but he didn't engage in public brawls beloved by – and between – Ted…

Gerald M. “Jerry” Levin, the former CEO of Time Warner who helped oversee its calamitous merger with AOL, died Wednesday in Long Beach, CA. He was 84. His death was confirmed to The New York Times by his grandchild, Jake Maia Arlow. Levin had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but no details…

Verizon said Monday that it’s clinched a deal to sell its media assets to Apollo Global Management and related entities for $5 billion. Verizon will retain a 10% stake in the company, which will be known as Yahoo at close of the transaction and continue to be led by CEO Guru Gowrappan. Verizon Media brands are led by…

Verizon is exploring a sale of Yahoo and AOL that would end a rocky era for the telco as a media owner after a spate of disappointing acquisitions. A sale could bring $4 billion to $5 billion and giant investment group Apollo Global Management is said to involved, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Reps…

Verizon’s distressed Oath unit, home to such Web 1.0 media operations as Yahoo, AOL and HuffPost, is bleeding badly enough that the company plans to take a $4.6 billion charge in the fourth quarter. A voluntary separation program that will see 10,400 workers exit by June 2019 are expected to result in a severance…

Tim Armstrong, CEO of Verizon’s internet content unit, Oath, is reportedly negotiating his exit from the company. The Wall Street Journal reported the talks this morning. An Oath rep did not immediately respond to Deadline’s request for comment. A former top ad sales executive at Google, Armstrong became CEO of AOL in…

AOL Instant Messenger, the chat feature introduced by the then-dial-up ISP in the mid-1990s, is set to end its once-pioneering run on Dec. 15. Verizon acquired AOL for $4.4 billion in 2015. Its Oath media subsidiary now oversees AOL it and confirmed the move, saying the service “will always have a special place in our…

About 500 AOL employees, accounting for 5% of its workforce, are about to lose their jobs. Tim Armstrong, who’s CEO of the Verizon-owned company, disclosed the news to staffers today as he announced a restructuring to focus on two business units: Media, which will include Search and Communications, and Platforms. “The…

UPDATED, 5:10 PM: It looks like Verizon has a deal to buy Yahoo. Bloomberg News reports that the communications giant is set to announce Monday that it will pay $4.8 billion for the beleaguered company’s core web business in a deal that includes some real estate. That figure is in line with analysts’ expectations. The…

EXCLUSIVE: "I found it a real honor to be asked to continue the tradition," Jared Leto says of playing Batman's decades-long archenemy The Joker in Warner Bros’ upcoming Suicide Squad. An Oscar winner, a musician with his band 30 Seconds To Mars and a documentarian, Leto also has been trying his hand as an interviewer…

PepsiCo’s Creators League, the brand’s in-house content development division, has opened a new New York City studio and with it unveiled collaborations including a film with Hollywood management and production company The Firm and rapper Tip "T.I." Harris, as well as AOL's Partner Studios. As part of the content push…

There’s worrisome news for TV networks this morning from AOL, one of the companies trying to eat their lunch. Ad buyers are shifting about 10% of their TV budgets to digital platforms, the Verizon-owned digital company says in its latest State Of The Video Industry report, which is based on a survey of 300 brands…