While Yahoo maps out its future, prospective purchaser Verizon and Australian partner Seven West Media appear to be playing a waiting game.

There's been speculation about whether Verizon, which agreed a US$4.8 billion deal to acquire Yahoo's core internet assets last July, will go ahead although AOL chief Tim Armstrong is keen for it. Despite problems with two information hacks, there seems a consensus that there's ample value, given the ad technology being acquired.

For Seven West Media, much has changed since the early days of the Australian Yahoo!7 portal partnership - launched in 1997 - which ironically, followed one Seven had with AOL, which is now owned by Verizon.

After the deal was announced, Seven West said it was considering "strategic options" which were understood to include buying out its partner, a possible sale or licensing transaction. While the board has been busy in recent weeks with the fallout of an "inappropriate consensual sexual relationship" admitted by its chief executive, the consequent regular meetings will have given directors the opportunity to discuss implications of the Verizon deal as well.

It seems Seven West will wait until the Verizon purchase is completed before making a move, but Seven West is said to have a contingency plan to exit the joint venture.

Yahoo's place in the market is very different to when it contemplated the purchase of Google and Facebook; now these two are the giants of the internet, the role Yahoo can play is vastly different, but the potential - in a Verizon-AOL-Yahoo link-up, extremely interesting.

When internet assets are sold, Yahoo Inc said this week that it would change its name to Altaba to reflect its remaining interests in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. While chief executive Marissa Mayer is to step down from the board, it is not clear whether she will remain involved with Altaba.