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Business News/ Companies / News/  Yahoo says sale to Verizon delayed until second quarter
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Yahoo says sale to Verizon delayed until second quarter

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is under pressure to conclude the deal with Verizon following the revelation of massive hacks, most recently in December

Yahoo reported fourth-quarter revenue that topped analysts’ estimates and user activity that showed minimal declines after the announcement of a second major security breach. Photo: BloombergPremium
Yahoo reported fourth-quarter revenue that topped analysts’ estimates and user activity that showed minimal declines after the announcement of a second major security breach. Photo: Bloomberg

San Francisco: Yahoo Inc. said the sale of its main web operations to Verizon Communications Inc. has been delayed until next quarter to meet closing conditions while the company recovers from the disclosure of massive hacks to its user accounts.

The company said Monday it’s “working expeditiously" to finish the deal as soon as practical. Yahoo had expected the agreement to be completed in the current period. The web portal also reported fourth-quarter revenue that topped analysts’ estimates and user activity that showed minimal declines after the announcement last month of a second major security breach.

ALSO READ | Yahoo to be named Altaba, CEO Marissa Mayer to quit board after Verizon deal

Chief executive officer (CEO) Marissa Mayer is under pressure to conclude the deal with the telecommunications giant following the revelation of massive hacks, most recently in December when Yahoo said as many as 1 billion user accounts may have been compromised. Verizon is exploring a price cut or possible exit from the pending acquisition that was valued at $4.83 billion when it was announced in July, a person familiar with the matter said in December.

“With our 2016 and Q4 financial results ahead of plan, and the continued stability in our user engagement trends, the opportunities ahead with Verizon look bright," Mayer said in a statement. “In addition to integration planning, our top priority continues to be enhancing security for our users."

Verizon declined to comment on the new time frame for the deal. The company is awaiting the completion of Yahoo’s breach investigation before making any decisions, said Bob Varettoni, a Verizon spokesman.

ALSO READ | Yahoo has some good news and (of course) some bad news

Shares of Yahoo rose less than 1% in extended trading after closing at $42.40 in New York.

Yahoo reported sales, excluding revenue passed on to partners for web traffic, of $960 million, topping analysts’ estimates of $907.9 million, according to data compiled Bloomberg. Profit, before certain items, was 25 cents a share. Analysts projected 21 cents.

E-mail traffic

Yahoo also released data showing e-mail activity with the usual seasonal declines after the company announced the security breach in December. The e-mail activity largely recovered this month, also following a similar pattern to a year ago, according to Yahoo’s data.

Yahoo said last month that cyber-thieves in 2013 siphoned information including users’ e-mail addresses, scrambled account passwords and dates of birth. The stolen data may allow criminals to go after more sensitive personal information elsewhere online. The announcement followed news in September of a 2014 breach that affected at least 500 million customer accounts.

ALSO READ | SEC probing Yahoo over cyberattacks: report

The attacks on Yahoo’s system have sparked concerns from regulators and prompted lawsuits. In November, the company said it was cooperating with federal, state, and foreign governmental officials and agencies seeking information about the 2014 hack, including the US Federal Trade Commission and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In December, following the admission of a second hack, a White House spokesman said the Federal Bureau of Investigation was probing the Yahoo hack as well.

Page views

Page views on Yahoo’s main website verticals—such as news and finance—didn’t bounce back as strongly as a year earlier. The company pointed to world events in December 2015 that attracted brisk engagement, including stock market volatility and presidential debates.

This is the second time the company has provided the metrics on page views and e-mail activity. In October, the company reported page views on Yahoo properties rose just after the disclosure of a hack in 2014. Also, mail messages sent and read increased, along with searches. Still, some of the metrics showed those increases didn’t hold up after a few weeks. Bloomberg

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Published: 24 Jan 2017, 06:39 PM IST
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