Yahoo spinoff brings an end to an era to one of the Web's pioneers

By deciding to shed its Internet business, Yahoo is moving to take on a different business focus amid a rapidly changing online landscape.

The move heralds the end of an era for a onetime Internet pioneer.

"As an industry, this signifies the end of the static Web," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. "Yahoo popularized categories and directories, which was then replaced by search, which is being replaced by mobile. Yahoo completely missed search and entered mobile too slowly. Now it's in flux."

Early Wednesday, Yahoo announced that it was reversing its initial plan to spin off its $31 billion stake in Alibaba, the popular Chinese e-commerce company. Instead, Yahoo will keep its Alibaba stake and spin off everything else.

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