• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 7, 2015

Verizon emerged Monday as a possible bidder for Yahoo's core businesses, from search to media and advertising. If the telecom giant gets serious about buying Yahoo, the deal could turn Verizon into a network and media mogul -- especially after closing the sale of AOL in June for an estimated $4.4 billion.

Verizon CFO Fran Shammo's comments on Monday at an industry conference were the first official hint of interest from a company that analysts say could be among Yahoo's potential buyers, according to reports and several Twitter tweets.

Reports suggest that Shammo said it was too early to say whether Verizon would buy the assets, but "if Yahoo is right," it could have interest.

The future of Yahoo remains hush. The company's board spent the weekend mulling over the sale of core assets, but has yet to announce any decisions.

Along with the AOL acquisition, Verizon acquired a 10-year deal with Microsoft for display advertising assets and ad sales. Buying Yahoo's assets would give Verizon a foundation in search engine and native advertising.

Although Yahoo has been struggling to turn itself around, the company has made progress, delivering on a promise to innovate on search advertising through its Gemini platform, which also supports native display advertising.

The sale to Verizon would give the telecom company a full advertising suite, from programmatic video and display to native advertising and search, and make it a formidable competitor to Google.