Many Americans are reacting to news that Verizon Communications will buy Yahoo, one of the first big internet companies. The deal is worth $4.8 billion. Verizon is a telecommunications company in the United States. It provides wireless service for cell phones and other mobile devices. Yahoo opened in 1994. Back then, it offered a guide to websites on the internet. The company later graduated to email, web searches and news. Yahoo made money by selling advertising on its pages. In the late 1990s, the company may have been worth as much as $125 billion. But its business has been struggling for a number of years. Some observers say Yahoo had trouble staying relevant as the internet developed. Google is now the most popular search engine in the U.S. Also, social networks like Facebook have changed the way people use the internet. In 2008, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for $44 billion, but its offer was rejected.