YAHOO will adopt a new corporate identity and cut the size of its board in half if the proposed $6.5 billion ($US4.8 billion) sale of its digital services to Verizon Communications goes through.

The company plans to change its name to Altaba Inc after it turns over its email, websites, mobile apps and advertising tools to Verizon.

News of the less-than-catchy new company name prompted a string of tweets poking fun at the company, whose sale to Verizon has been jeopardised by Yahoo’s recent discovery of two separate hacking attacks that stole personal information from more than 1 billion user accounts.

Yahoo is now going to be Altaba? I'd make joke but they've already been taken. — Bryan (@ZeoMassicot) January 9, 2017

How does one pronounce “Altaba” anyway? Maybe we won’t need to learn since today will likely be the last we ever hear of Yahoo. — jeff krueger (@jallenkrueger) January 9, 2017

Yahoo is changing its name to Altaba, which will hopefully throw hackers off the scent for a while. — Mark Milian (@markmilian) January 9, 2017

All that's left of Yahoo! is Ali Baba

Althatsleftsalibaba

Alteftisbaba

Altaba — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 9, 2017

I would really like to know how many high level #Verizon corporate meetings it took to come up with the name #Altaba?? @verizon @Yahoo 😜📞☎️💻 — Your Boy! Brian (@yourboyBrianRD) January 9, 2017

Chief executive Marissa Mayer and four other directors currently on Yahoo’s 10-member board will resign after the planned sale closes.

Yahoo, which made the disclosure on Monday in an SEC filing, will become primarily an investment holding company if and when the Verizon sale is completed.

At that point the company, whose major asset will be shares of China’s Alibaba Group, will rename itself Altaba Inc.

In the only change that took effect on Monday, Yahoo director Eric Brandt became the company’s chairman. He replaces Maynard Webb, who becomes chairman emeritus until the Verizon deal closes.