As everyone (and their grandmother) has surely heard by now, Yahoo will be changing its name to Altaba following the sale of its core internet business to Verizon.
According to the Washington Post, the new name is a combination of “alternative” and “Alibaba,” a reference to the company’s stake in Alibaba.
The jokes and jabs have all been made: It sounds like a pill from the pharma world, babble from a drunk baby, an odd reference to keyboard shortcut Alt + Tab, a random selection of Scrabble tiles, a Star Trek planet, and so on.
Inebriated infants aside, most of the harsh criticism follows a common theme: soullessness. Everyone seems to agree that the name Altaba is cold and empty. And while that’s quite a disappointing shift from the positive, excitement-filled name Yahoo, it’s also quite realistic. The soul has slowly been sucked out of Yahoo over the years, and now that their core internet business is gone, all that’s left is… Altaba.