Verizon could finalise a revised deal as early as this week to buy Yahoo’s core internet business for a figure which would be $250 million to $350 million less than the original price of $4.83 billion, Reuters reported.
The US operator made a move to acquire the ailing internet giant’s operating business in July 2016 to boost its position as “a top global mobile media company”.
However, the deal was jeopardised by revelations Yahoo suffered two major data hacks: one in 2014 impacting 500 million user accounts, and one in 2013 affecting more than one billion user accounts. The latter is the largest known data breach in history and Yahoo faced scrutiny by federal investigators and lawmakers ever since.
Verizon reportedly sought a $1 billion discount on the sale price after the 2014 security breach came to light. The US Securities and Exchange Commission even launched a probe into whether Yahoo should have disclosed the breaches sooner.
The new deal will see the two firms sharing the liability from potential lawsuits related to the data breaches, the Reuters report said.
“Maybe this isn’t quite as much of a discount as initially thought, but it’s at least something,” the report quoted Dave Heger, senior equity analyst at Edward Jones, as saying.
Last month, Verizon’s content and advertising strategy took a double hit, with news the planned Yahoo deal was likely to be delayed joined by reports of job cuts in its go90 video streaming app team.
In a filing to US authorities, Yahoo said it is set to be renamed Altaba and CEO Marissa Mayer will step down should the planned acquisition by Verizon go ahead.
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