Yahoo has sold out, Pokemon Go is a record breaker, the Xbox One is going cheap, Netflix nabs new MST3K, and what happens at the end of Pac-Man?

Verizon Buys Yahoo For $4.8 Billion

Verizon is buying Yahoo for $4.83 billion in cash. For that chunk of change, Verizon will acquire Yahoo's many online entities, including its email service which still boasts 225 million active users every month. It also includes Yahoo's Brightroll advertising service. The sale does not, however, include Yahoo Japan, or Yahoo's stake in Alibaba.

While $4.8 billion may sound like a lot of money to you and I, it's actually a fraction of the price Yahoo could have commanded many years ago when it was at the height of its powers. In fact, Yahoo spent more than it's now worth on acquiring Broadcast.com in 1999. And almost as much acquiring GeoCities, which it then shut down a decade later.

Not that the current and final CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, could ever admit that this sale represents failure on any level. In a letter to employees, which has also been posted on Tumblr, she calls Yahoo, "a company that changed the world" and "humanized and popularized the web, email, search, real-time media, and more."

Mayer concluded:

"I’m incredibly proud of everything that we’ve achieved, and I’m incredibly proud of our team. For me personally, I’m planning to stay. I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you. It’s important to me to see Yahoo into its next chapter."

Yahoo will join AOL at Verizon, which acquired the latter in 2015 for $4.4 billion. Which means Verizon appears to be making a habit of buying tech giants well past their prime. The deal is subject to approval from the regulators, and isn't expected to be completed until early 2017.

Pokemon Go Breaks an iTunes Record

While the initial over-the-top interest in Pokemon Go has started to wane, there's no doubt this game captured people's imaginations like the best trainers capture Pikachus. And we now know just how much Pokemon Go took over the world for a brief period, thanks to Apple.

The company has confirmed that Pokemon Go broke the iTunes App Store record for the most number of downloads in the first week after release. While neither Apple, Nintendo, or Niantic is revealing the actual numbers, this is still an amazing achievement considering the competition.

Meanwhile, Nintendo's shares, which doubled in price in the immediate aftermath of the release of Pokemon Go, have fallen sharply. The reason? The company itself warning investors that the success of this particular game will have a limited impact on its profits, as it doesn't actually make the game.

The Xbox One Is Cheaper Than Ever

Microsoft has dropped the price of the Xbox One again, this time to just $249. Microsoft is billing this as "Sweet summer savings," and stating that the lower price will only apply "while supplies last". Which isn't too surprising given that the new Xbox One S is launched on August 2. In other words, Microsoft is trying to clear the old stock before shifting the new stock.

Regardless of the reasoning, this is a good deal. It means you can buy any 500GB Xbox One bundle for $249, which means you'll get one game thrown in for free. This is the third price drop in as many months, with the Xbox One going from $349 to $299, then $299 to $279, and now $279 to $249. Not that Microsoft is desperate to close the gap on the PlayStation 4 or anything.

The New MST3K Has Landed on Netflix

Mystery Science Theater 3000 is being rebooted, and the new show will be coming to a Netflix near you soon. MST3K is being rebooted thanks to a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign which ended up raising $5.7 million. The result is a brand new 14-episode season which has now found a new home at Netflix.

Details are still thin on the ground, with Netflix merely promising that MST3K will be back in the "not too distant future". However, we do know it will be shown in the the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Joel Hodgson, Mary Jo Pehl, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy are all back for the reboot, with Patton Oswalt, Felicia Day, and others joining the cast.

What Happens At the End of Pac-Man

And finally, I would bet all of my earthly possessions on the fact that none of you reading this ever got to the end of Pac-Man. There's an end, you say? Yes, of sorts. As we find out from legendary gamer Billy Mitchell, who was the first person to achieve a perfect score of 3,333,360 points.

As he explains in this video, when you reach Level 256, the game commits digital harakiri, glitching out, and leaving you with no option but to die. The handful of people who actually got that far into Pac-Man discovered that because there's not enough memory left to power the game, it simply stops working.

Modern video games are often criticized for shipping with bugs and failing to live up to the hype, but at least they all offer actual endings! [H/T Sploid]

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

How do you feel about Verizon buying Yahoo? Were you one of the people who downloaded Pokemon Go in the first week? Does the lower price make the Xbox One a more attractive option? Will you be watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Netflix? How far through Pac-Man did you get?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Tech News Digest is a daily column paring the technology news of the day down into bite-sized chunks that are easy to read and perfect for sharing.

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