Verizon has reportedly asked for a discount of USD 1 billion off its bid price of USD 4.83 billion for Yahoo, following the recent hacking revelations, the New York Post reported, citing exclusive sources. Yahoo recently confirmed that the user names and passwords of over 500 million accounts were hacked and that it had been ordered by US intelligence officials to scan emails for security reasons. The discount is being pushed because Verizon feels Yahoo’s value has been diminished, sources said.
AOL boss Tim Armstrong flew to the West Coast in the past few days to meet with Yahoo executives to hammer out a case for a price reduction, a source said. At the same time, the Yahoo deal team is pushing back hard against any attempts to negotiate the price down, sources said.
Verizon had been planning to couple Yahoo with its AOL unit. AOL/Yahoo will reach about 1 billion consumers if the deal closes in the first quarter, with a stated goal to reach 2 billion by 2020.
