A very different celebration was taking place in Midtown, just blocks from Verizon's official headquarters.In order to close the Apollo acquisition of parent company Verizon Media, the telco that owns TechCrunch will announce overnight that it has signed an agreement with Z Holdings (a division of Japans SoftBank Group) to sell trademarks in the Japan market for the Yahoo brand and related technology infrastructure for $1.6 billion.Z Holdings, the very descriptive company, owns SoftBanks Japan's internet businesses, including Yahoo Japan. Yahoo Japan is still the country's most visited news site. Yahoo Japan, under its current agreement with Verizon Media (formerly Oath + Yahoo), paid a regular royalty to be able to use the Yahoo brand in Japan and related technologies. These royalties will be stopped in place of an upfront payment.One of the most important nuances in Apollo's $5 billion purchase of Verizon Media was the resolution of the agreement. Verizon will receive significant additional consideration in the deal as it attempts to reduce its debt load from its spending spree on wireless spectrum auctions such as the $52.9 billion purchase of C-band spectrum.Z Holdings stated in a press release that the Yahoo Japan License Agreement would be ended, but Yahoo Japan and Verizon Media would still have a business relationship and technology partnership. Yahoo Japan will continue to offer more convenient and innovative services. Based on the brand's mission statement, JAPAN, expect more patches to Japan to arrive in the near future.
