Internet search engine Yahoo! Inc. confirmed Thursday it will buy GeoCities, a fast-growing Web site community, in a $3.6 billion deal that will further solidify Yahoo!’s position as a frontrunner in the online popularity contest.
Under terms of the deal, expected to close in the second quarter, GeoCities shareholders will receive 0.3384 share of Yahoo! for each share of GeoCities they own. GeoCities has 31.4 million shares outstanding.
Based on Yahoo!’s closing stock price of $335.875 on Wednesday, the transaction is valued at roughly $3.57 billion, a hefty premium over GeoCities’ market capitalization of $2.3 billion.