Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) are closing in on a revised contract that would lessen the price that the latter would compensate for the internet firm’s core business by almost $300 million.
The details
The two firms are discussing a deal to share any future liabilities as an outcome of two big data breaches Yahoo reported after the firms struck their initial $4.8 billion transaction in July. A deal could close even though Verizon’s probe into the breaches isn’t done. Executives at the telecommunications firm intend to move forward despite some uncertainty to get to work on combining Yahoo with its AOL segment. If the two sides can decide soon on a revised deal, the transaction could complete in April.
Separately, Yahoo stated that it is notifying users whose accounts it considers were compromised in the past 2 years by hackers counterfeiting digital files named cookies. That incident, first revealed in December 2016, is in addition to the 2 big data violations. Yahoo didn’t confirm how many users it is informing.
Besides this fact, there are some more things that investors should know about how Yahoo closed out 2016 as shareholders eagerly look forward to the planned merger. The tech giant topped earnings guidance for the quarter, earning 25 cents a share compared to the consensus projection of 21 cents a share. The firm brought in 13 cents a share in the comparable quarter of FY2015.
Revenue was a bright spot for the firm at $1.47 billion, up $200 million from what Yahoo raked in a year earlier. Wall Street guided for net sales of $1.38 billion based on analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The count of display ads offered by the firm jumped 4% year-over-year. Display revenue came at $573 million in the quarter, excluding traffic acquisition expenses, topping guidance by $5 million.
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