Yahoo’s decision to hide the severity of the 2014 hacker attack may be coming back to bite them in the rear in a huge way. How so you ask? Well, it appears that Verizon may not be pullling the trigger on acquiring the company after all.
Speaking to reporters at a roundtable in Washington, Verizon’s general counsel Craig Stillman has said that the company has “reasonable basis” to believe that Yahoo’s data breach of email accounts represents a material impact that could allow Verizon to withdraw from the USD4.83 billion deal to buy it. This is thanks to a clause located in the deal that would allow the U.S. telco company to withdraw from it without any consequences.
While Verizon have yet to say outright that they are withdrawing from acquiring Yahoo altogether, there are reports that the company is reevaluating the deal, which may lead to a lower acquisition price than the previously reported USD4.83 billion. In the meantime, Verizon will be “evaluating the breach and will make determinations about whether and how to move forward with the deal based on our evaluation of the materiality.”
Source: Reuters