The Yahoo debacle is getting more interesting by the day. The recent discovery of a massive 2014 hack LINK led to a media frenzy. The announcement of the hack led to severe criticism and drop of prestige for Yahoo. It seems like their financial worth is also dropping.
Verizon Is Having Second Thought about Buying Yahoo
Before the Yahoo data breach was discovered, the company was bought by Verizon for $4.83 billion dollars. Verizon is a telecommunications conglomerate worth more than $130 billion. The transaction is supposed to be finalized in Q1 2017.
According to the New York Post, Verizon is trying to get a billion dollar discount on what appears to be a pretty bad deal for them. Yahoo’s value dropped since the half-a-billion leak, which isn’t the only big data breach the site suffered in the last year.
Back in August 2016, we wrote an article about the 2012 leak of 200 million Yahoo accounts. These hacks happened while Marissa Mayer was CEO of the company.
It’s still unknown who carried out the hacks. The 200 million databases was sold on the Dark Web for 3 BTC. Yahoo blamed a state-sponsored agent for the 500 million data breach from September, a claim that was met with skepticism. Things got even more interesting when it became known that Yahoo authorized the US government to enter their databases, giving them access to user emails.
The leaks compromised the Internet privacy of more than half a billion people. If we convert that number to the population of Earth, that would be around 7%. It’s one of, if not the largest breach of personal data in the Internet’s history.
Many big-name sites suffered big breaches. The one million stolen credentials from Brazzers seem like a small drop compared to half a billion.
The Downfall of Yahoo
Yahoo was once an Internet juggernaut, but since the rise of Google, Facebook, and other competitors, the company has declined significantly. The site’s profits went away along with many users.
The turning point for Yahoo probably happened in 2012, when Jerry Yang, the site’s co-founder stepped down. 2012 was also the year when Marissa Mayer was hired as CEO of the company. She’s often blamed for the downfall of the once-mighty Yahoo. It’s understandable that Verizon would want to minimize their losses. One thing is for sure – they may have bought a dead horse for $ 4.83 billion.
