It has already been known that Verizon is set to buy Yahoo’s stake for a price of $4.83 billion. However, it is also pressing to get compensation for the possible damages cause by the recent attack on Yahoo’s security system. The company is fighting to get a one-billion-dollar discount on the original amount of the Yahoo deal.
It had been reported that a hacker had allegedly stolen sensitive information from millions of Yahoo user’s accounts. The stolen data include information as crucial as passwords even the answers to security questions.
Verizon believes that it was no ordinary breach. It isn’t very unlikely that the rupture would cause a significant material or even financial impact to the company. Hence, the company is concerned about the security of its investment on acquiring Yahoo.
Verizon’s legal counsel have now begun meeting with Yahoo’s lawyers about the issue. This will indeed be an extensive case unless Yahoo decides to concede with Verizon’s plea. The leader of Verizon’s counsel, Craig Silliman, exhorts that they have legitimate grounds to prove that the breach had caused material damage to Yahoo’s property. These grounds give the telecommunications company the advantage of cancelling the agreement.
Meanwhile, Yahoo remains firm and steadfast about their services. Marissa Mayer, the chief executive officer for Yahoo, assures that the company is taking full responsibility for keeping people’s private information safe and secure. She is still proud of how Yahoo products provide value to people’s lives. She also guarantees that Yahoo will work hard not to break the trust and loyalty that user have given them.
However, Yahoo’s shares in the market had already dropped to 1.4%.
Cutting the one billion dollars to the original amount of this deal will reduce the worth of Yahoo’s equity. Fortunately, the electronic mail provider does not rely primarily on that for its stocks. A majority of its investments come from Alibaba and Yahoo’s Japan counterpart which are not counted in the acquisition.
According to some analyst, Verizon will have a hard time procuring this huge price cut on this Yahoo deal. Additionally, finding evidence for material damages from the breach was never a success. Yahoo’s operations seemed to have remained unaffected. Hence, the company is confident the arrangement should be decided in their favor.
Brian Wieser is a researcher from Pivotal Research. In his opinion, he argues that Yahoo need to be more considerate with Verizon regarding its acquisition of some of its assets on a troubled situation. Nevertheless, he has no doubts that the deal will take place.
