A $4.83 billion acquisition of Yahoo by Verizon has been long in the making now and despite more than a few setbacks, the two companies have announced their intent to proceed with the deal, though at a massive discount to Verizon.
Details of the deal began surfacing in July of last year, when Verizon confirmed the existence of the deal. Unfortunately, details soon emerged that Yahoo had previously suffered two major data breaches and a potentially significant loss of account security after it revealed just this month that attackers had stolen the source code it used to create cookies, leaving an unspecified number of accounts at risk. This was in addition to a massive breach from 2014 involving 500 million users and one in 2013 with over a billion users affected, both of which it had failed to disclose until last year, much to the ire of both its users and Verizon.
Following this, the health of the deal was in question with rumours swirling of Verizon asking for as much as a $1 billion discount on the asking price and then later considering shelving the deal altogether. A more conservative figure of $250 million emerged earlier this month and it seems that the two companies have finally agreed to a $350 million discount in Verizon"s favour.
As part of the deal, Verizon will also take 50% of any financial liability as a result of the two hacks, although Yahoo may still be subject to damages from shareholder lawsuits and the currently ongoing probe into the data breaches by the SEC.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, making it, in Verizon"s words, "one of the largest portfolios of owned and partnered global brands."
Source: Engadget