Fining a company is wounding to their reputation, but a Mexican court looks to be really eager to twist the knife in Yahoo. A court in the country has ordered the company to cough up an eye-watering $2.7 billion over a lawsuit involving a breach of contract and lost profits from a yellow pages listing service.
The yellow pages listing service was operated by Worldwide Directories and Ideas Interactivas. Yahoo's contribution to this yellow pages company dates all the way back to 2003 (according to an article from the year), with Paginas Utiles. As you can see from the site it's pretty dead. It's a real kicker for a company that Marissa Mayer, formerly of Google, has been fighting to turn around since mid-2012.
Yahoo is understandably horrified, and "believes the plaintiffs' claims are without merit and will vigorously pursue all appeals." $2.7 billion dollars is an astronomical amount to try to wring out of a company. It's more than Apple eventually got from Samsung. According to Wikipedia, Yahoo's revenue for 2011 was $4.98 billion, so the fine represents more than half that amount.
Business Insider turned up some useful information; Carlos Bazan-Canabal claims that Paginas Utiles turned Yahoo Mexico's financial status around on his LinkedIn profile. Bazan-Canabal was a Yahoo executive at one point, leaving to work for Worldwide Directories - the same company that seems to now be fighting Yahoo. One thing's for sure - "Yahoo" is not going to be shouted at the next stockholder meeting in any positive manner.
Sources: AllThingsD, Business Insider
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