Verizon Media hopes to make $5 billion from the sale and is talking to Apollo Global Management about the idea. 

It is not clear how a deal would be structured or if other suitors may emerge. No final decision has been made and Verizon could opt to keep the unit.

Verizon is getting rid of tertiary media assets while ramping up its focus on its wireless business and the rollout of its 5G service.

Last year, it agreed to sell the HuffPost online news service to BuzzFeed and it unloaded the blogging platform Tumblr in 2019.

If it flogs Yahoo and AOL, Verizon will have finally admitted that a move into online advertising was an expensive flop.