Yahoo! Small Business is Becoming Luminate


Luminate

Business owners who use Yahoo Small Business services may have noticed an email from Yahoo. The company recently announced that their small business program will soon be “reborn” as Luminate,  and become a part of Aabaco Small Business.

Amer Akhtar, VP and Head of Yahoo Small Business says in an announcement, which appears on Luminate’s new website:

“I am excited to share with you that Yahoo Small Business, as part of Aabaco, is expected to be spun off from Yahoo later this year, and will be reborn as Luminate, from Aabaco Small Business.

“Our team has been — and will continue to be — focused on our customers, our products, and creating a smooth and seamless transition. I want to thank you for your continued business and partnership. Our top concern is your success.”

Aabaco was formerly a part of Yahoo but will soon be spun off, as Yahoo puts it, to become its own company, Aabaco Holdings Inc.

Inferring from the name, Aabaco Small Business is owned by Aabaco Holdings. As a result, customers of Yahoo Small Business will soon find themselves a part of Luminate.

Luminate says on Yahoo Small Business about the change:

“We are 100 percent committed to providing the highest level of service and solutions to help you grow your business. Plus, as a subsidiary of Aabaco after the spin-off, we’ll be investing in our infrastructure and operations to make your experience even better.”

In addition to the name change, the Terms of service and Privacy Policy is also getting an update. The company promises current customers will be receiving an email notification about the changes as well as a notification when they log in to their account.

Still, customers who decide to stay with Luminate after the changes might want to give both the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy a once-over.

No exact date was given in the announcement as to when these changes will be taking effect. But according to the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, the anticipated effective date is Oct. 1, 2015.

Image: Small Business Trends

18 Comments ▼

Tabby McFarland Tabby McFarland is a staff writer and web researcher for Small Business Trends. As a staff writer she specializes in social media, technology, special interest features, and e-commerce. A geek at heart, Tabby loves to be online interacting with the blogging community. Tabby is a WAHM (work at home mom) and is also an avid Pinterest enthusiast with a strong sense of style and creativity.

18 Reactions
  1. What’s with the name change? Is it still under Yahoo or is it under a different provider? How is the services different from the previous one?

    • Yahoo Small Business will now be under a different company, Aabaco Small Business. This is why the name has changed from Yahoo Small Business to Luminate. As to differences in services there were not many details given. The announcement did say the terms of service and privacy policy have been updated. Most likely other changes will be coming as well, though for right now I think the focus is on an easy transition for existing users.

      • Here’s a link to their new Terms and Conditions.

        https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/tos/luminate/utos

        The following excerpt is what concerns me the most:
        “The Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove all or part of this Agreement, including any applicable fee, Policy, or guideline, at any time without notice or acceptance by You. Regardless of whether the Company has provided You individual notice, Your continued use of the Service following the Company’s notice or posting of changed terms will constitute Your acceptance of such changes. It is Your responsibility to check regularly for changes to the Agreement. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT AND AGREE TO THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING ANY POLICY, DO NOT USE THE SERVICES.”

    • First it was Luminite and now they are calling it Aabaco. Seems like some sort of identity crisis. ha ha

  2. Looks like Aabaco/Luminate have done away with the “Free Basic Listing” and now are partnered solely with Yext just as Mapquest did. In Mapquest’s case, as least they ramped up customer service and they have been very responsive to making basic changes to listings in order to be accurate. Enhanced information still must be paid for, but at least you don’t get stuck at Mapquest with incorrect info. I hope that Yahoo will follow suite. As you’ve probably experienced, sending a ticket to Yahoo for listing updates has been like sending them to a black hole for a long time now.

    Also, I hope that the new Yahoo Local resumes updating their database with aggregator information. That may be the only way to originate a new business now without paying. Here’s a screen shot of one of my client’s dashboards as I logged in today:
    http://www.wedolocal.com/blog/yahoo-who-is-it-going-to-be-luminate-aabaco-or-yext

    It was once such a leader in Local Search, not it’s such a fail.

    • Bob, I am a business owner and this Yahoo garbage is enough to drive me to seeking legal help. After all the crap they have put me though and being a PAYING customer for almost 7 years, do you know if I am going to have to change my email from @yahoo.com?

      If so, this is going to cost me $1000’s of dollars to have business cards, real estate signs, websites, etc re-done! If you can let me know as getting ahold of THEM is impossible!

  3. Hi have a question as in customary Yahoo fashion, this shit is vague as hell. I own a business and have been paying $9.95 every month for over 7 years (for what, I don’t know). They not only took it upon themselves to remove my 42 5 STAR reviews (that did not belong to them) but as I was promised when I became a PAYING customer would be able to access customer service when needed which has been a bunch of BS!

    Now my concern is with this change, is my email address (which is currently irentnatomas@yahoo.com) going to have to be changed to irentnatomas@_____________________ being Yahoo is no longer the provider? Does anybody know? If so, this means I have to order all new business cards, all new real estate signs (which is going to cost me in the $1000’s), pay to have my website changed, etc.

    If anybody knows, can you please let me know?????

  4. Now they say it’s Aabaco? Also they keep saying coming soon and possibly the last quarter of 2015 but it’s the middle of Nov and no change yet. I think Yahoo has made a lot of poor choices that started back when they got rid of Geocities and started to clutter up their home page with junk. Now the whole name flip flop makes them seem like they are having an identity crisis. I miss the 90s and early 2000’s when 1. Their home page wasn’t high maintenance on my computer. 2. They had an easy to understand webhosting packages that started with the free Geocities. and 3. blah blah blah You get the point if you’ve been following Yahoo.

  5. News Update – Yahoo Small Business migration to Luminante (rebranded last minute to Aabaco Small Business) Delay 2+ days and down on launch. Many SB users can’t manage their stores!
    I think there is a real story here where small us business owners (I am the “Pop” in a Mom and Pop garage biz) selected Yahoo Small Business as their online business solutuon. We pay more for the Powered by Yahoo brand because it was to transmit the ultimate in web shopping confidence to our clients. Sadly that has not been the case, and now after 6 years investing $40/month with Yahoo in a micro-business they do this brand bait and switch. The migration has been terrible and not once has Yahoo Shopping really improved the customer experience. I should have left to Amazon or Google shopping long ago. I feel ripped off. Now some Chinese startup business is going to showcase my meticulously crafted made in the usa machine tool product? Its makes me mad as heck.

  6. I’ve been with Yahoo Sitebuilder for years and now, though I signed up with Aabaco, I cannot publish my Yahoo Site. Phone wait times are 30 minutes and more. I’m in Art Basel and I can’t update my website for the exhibit. Shit is going to hit the fan if I can’t publish soon or if someone doesn’t finally take me off of hold. I think all Yahoo Sitebuilder customers should start a class action suit if this isn’t resolved soon.

  7. What I cannot understand is why, when I go to the suggested “sitebuilder.luminate.com” to download the new version of my webhosting site, my computer tells me to “get out of here” and that it is a risk. Also, why is the new sitebuilder on “luminate” if luminate is no longer a part of this deal?

    Will my Yahoo site now be hosted by “Luminate”? or should I wait to upload because it is a scam?

  8. So far it’s been a less than pleasant experience. Already thinking of finding a new service.

  9. I have been a yahoo customer since 2007,with website,domains,numerous email addresses.
    Yahoo has betrayed its customers!!! I WILL NOT GIVE MY BUSINESS TO A CO THAT HAS SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS!!! I AM MOVING FROM YAHOO,AABACO,LUMINATE OR WHATEVER B.S. THEY ARE!!! WHERE DOES A CO HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE AN AGREEMENT ANY DAMN TIME THEY CHOOSE. NOW I WILL SPEND MONEY MIGRATING AND RE-DESIGNING,

  10. Why was I charged $1.00 by yahoo small business yesterday 2-7-26? Never heard of such!

  11. We’ve been with YahooSmallbusiness for close to 15 years- since this change to Aabaco, I can no longer access our farm website to make necessary changes. Am I missing something here? VERY VERY FRUSTRATING as my time is extremely limited and I don’t have the time to chase down their lousy customer service.

  12. This company is horrible. they are inept and incompetent. they have no clue what they are doing. I have been unable to edit my site for 4 or 5 days now with no relief in sight. Horrible!