Verizon is reportedly eyeing a media spin-off

Hi and welcome to Insider Advertising for April 29. I'm senior advertising reporter Lauren Johnson, and here's what's going on:

• Verizon reportedly wants to sell off media assets.
• Hewlett-Packard Enterprise in-houses its advertising.
• Lionsgate tried to buy Showtime.

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Tips, comments, suggestions? Drop me a line at LJohnson@insider.com or on Twitter at @LaurenJohnson.

Verizon is reportedly considering a sale of its media assets, including AOL and Yahoo

• Verizon Communications is considering selling it's media assets, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• The sale, if it happens, would include Yahoo and AOL.
• Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc. is said to be involved, the sources told the Journal.

Read the story.

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise is the latest big advertiser to move business in-house in a loss for ad giant Publicis

• Hewlett-Packard Enterprise has created an in-house agency to oversee a big portion of its ad business, Lindsay Rittenhouse and Patrick Coffee reported.
• The decision marks a loss for ad giant Publicis, which has worked with HPE for several years.
• Sources said the move is an attempt by HPE to cut costs by taking programmatic media in-house.

Read the story.

Lionsgate tried to buy ViacomCBS' Showtime but was rejected, sources say

• Lionsgate made overtures to buy Showtime from ViacomCBS but was rejected, multiple sources tell Claire Atkinson.
• The idea was to combine Showtime with Lionsgate's own premium pay-TV company, Starz.
• One of the sources, based on their knowledge of the businesses, said the proposed entity would have had a value of between $10 billion to $12 billion.

Read the story.

More stories we're reading:

• Facebook tops expectations with soaring quarterly ad revenue (The AP)
• Joe Rogan said on his podcast that healthy young people should avoid COVID-19 vaccines. Spotify reportedly has no plans to remove the episode. (Insider)
• Pixar staffers frustrated by decision to send movies straight to Disney Plus: 'It's hard to grasp' (Insider)
• Apple's privacy changes are poised to boost its ad products (Wall Street Journal)
• Blackstone hires Droga5 chief strategy officer Jonny Bauer to lead a new brand initiative (Forbes)
• WarnerMedia plans to charge $9.99 per month for ad-supported HBO Max (CNBC)

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow! You can reach me in the meantime at LJohnson@insider.com and subscribe to this daily email here.