After months of back and forth, it appears Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) have worked out a revised deal.
Verizon originally agreed to pay $4.8 billion for Yahoo’s web properties back in July, adding to its acquisition of AOL a year earlier. The move was largely applauded by analysts who think owning media content is a logical next step for large telecoms.
Shortly after the two sides agreed to a price, Yahoo was rocked by two separate data breach scandals. In 2013 and 2014, at least 500 million Yahoo users may have had personal data such as email addresses and dates of birth stolen.
Naturally, Verizon wasn’t happy with these revelations, which led many to speculate that the telecom would try to renegotiate the deal. This is exactly what has happened. According to sources, the price for Yahoo will go down by about $250 million, or a little more than 5% of the original $4.8 billion price tag.
The two sides have also reportedly agreed that they will share legal responsibility for the attacks on a 50/50 basis.
Yahoo, which will be renamed Altaba Inc. after the deal closes, originally expected to wrap up the acquisition in the first quarter. The timeline has now been pushed back into the second quarter.
Yahoo’s shares rallied on the news, increasing 1.3% in midday Wednesday trading. Verizon’s shares did the opposite, falling 0.7%.
