Verizon is taking an ax to the Yahoo and AOL workforce

In case you haven't been following the news about 23-year-old Internet company acquisitions, Verizon announced 11 months ago that it had entered into an agreement to buy Yahoo for $4.83 billion. That deal, with some modifications, was officially approved and finalized yesterday, and it is expected to be completely closed on June 13.

When that happens, the telecommunications giant plans to combine those newly acquired assets with AOL, which it also owns, into a new media conglomerate. And of course, when you hear the word "combine," the next word you'll hear is "layoffs."

According to a report from CNBC, Verizon will slough off nearly 2100 jobs across the new former Internet behemoths. That accounts for around 15 percent of the entire combined workforce. The new entity that is formed will be called Oath.

Verizon has taken some criticism over its penchant to spend billions of dollars on online companies that have widely been considered obsolete in today's Internet landscape. That criticism came to a head when, less than two months after Verizon announced its Yahoo acquisition plan, Yahoo disclosed that it was the victim of one of the biggest data breaches in history. Although, that did allow Verizon to renegotiate its purchase price down to $4.48 billion.

However, due to their longevity, AOL and Yahoo have a considerable amount of valuable assets, patents, technology, and reach.

For example, AOL is a multiple Emmy winner. It won a Daytime Emmy in 2006 for its online show Live8 on AOL -- becoming the first recipient of an Emmy for an online-only program (seven years before Netflix got its first House of Cards Emmy). AOL repeated the feat, with a more recognizable Primetime Emmy victory, last year when Park Bench with Steve Buscemi won for Best Short-Form Variety Series.

Yahoo also had an online video service, which received its most attention when it picked up the TV show Community from NBC, after that network declined to renew it for a sixth season. Its service ultimately closed down last year, after losing millions of dollars.

Nevertheless, Verizon sees Yahoo as a diamond in the rough and hopes to leverage what it can to help push its business outside of the traditional telecommunications space.