Verizon executives are said to be at war over how to proceed with the company’s $4.8 billion deal to acquire Yahoo, in light of last week’s announcement that the Web pioneer was the victim of a massive 2014 hack, sources told The Post.
The New York company’s brass are mad that Yahoo didn’t notify them sooner of the hack, which exposed information on some 500 million user accounts.
It is unclear when Yahoo knew of the problem, although several reports said Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer knew in July of an earlier, separate possible hack. That attempted information hijack turned out to be untrue, but Yahoo’s probe eventually tuned up the larger, 500 million account hack.
Verizon didn’t learn of the larger hack until last Tuesday, just a few days before Yahoo announced it to the world, sources said.
“Verizon is livid they were not informed during due diligence and infighting … is impacting the Yahoo deal and this could be the escape clause,” said a source close to both parties.
At the same time, US regulators are looking into the matter, sources said,
Media and tech bankers are already whispering that Verizon wants to get out of the Yahoo deal — and if they do they may pursue Twitter, which is now in play, sources said.
“I would expect a price renegotiation at a minimum,” said one source.
Some experts said it would be hard for Verizon to prove the hacking was a material adverse change — the one surefire legal gambit that could scuttle the deal.
Yahoo would have to pay some $145 million if the deal somehow falls apart and it is to blame. While the hack is “upsetting,” it isn’t clear “it is a material adverse change,” one big Yahoo shareholder told The Post.
“Worst case, Yahoo retains the liability for the settlement.”
Reps for Verizon and Yahoo did not respond for comment.