Corporations naming themselves, unlike people naming their children, tend to be an exercise in discovering how blandly you can name yourself within the limits of copyright law, which is why Phillip Morris renamed themselves Altria and why drugs have commercial names weirder than their actual chemical names. So it should come as little surprise that once Verizon completes its buyout of Yahoo!, it will merge it with AOL under the eyebrow-raising name: “Oath.”
In something which is apparently not an April Fool’s joke, Business Insider learned of the name, although Verizon would only say that we should look for a “disruptive brandy company” in the next few months — which we can only assume will become a “#disruptive brand company” in coming press releases. The logic behind choosing the name is also under wraps, although we have to assume it will involve every employee swearing on a Bible to abide by the company vision.
But, already, people on the internet are finding issue with the name.
https://twitter.com/jeffweiner/status/848988308613070852
AOL + Yahoo, putting the Oath in Loathe https://t.co/VsjhQ2Ew1Z
— Phil (@pi8you) April 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/kateconger/status/848988126009729024
a Yahoo columnist is now an Oath taker
thank you
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) April 3, 2017
Still, their problems may all pale next to the most challenging issue facing the future merger. No — not coming into a complex digital publishing world, or the struggle to balance informative content with ad revenue. It’ll be getting this guy’s Twitter account.
Aol/Yahoo probably should have grabbed the twitter account first. Or maybe they did already? pic.twitter.com/VXg2O2XRy1
— david but in survival mode (@Aerocles) April 3, 2017
(via Business Insider)