Yahoo's Account Hack Raises Questions About Potential Impact On Verizon Deal

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Robert S. Peck of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey believes that the disclosure by Yahoo! Inc. YHOO of the hacking of more than 500 million accounts in 2014 creates concerns regarding the potential impact of this disclosure on the deal with Verizon Communications Inc. VZ.

Peck maintained a Neutral rating on Yahoo.

Account Hack

The analyst mentioned that Verizon had mentioned that it had only been notified two days ago regarding this hack and was in the process of evaluating its impact and “could very well accept this as a cost of being in business.”

In fact, the sale agreement does not include anything on price adjustments in the event of a change in business outlook.

In addition, Peck believes that MAC would not be triggered, given the exclusion in the agreement for "any failure by Yahoo to meet its internal or published projections, budgets, plans, or forecasts of its revenues, earnings, or other financial performance or results of operations."

Impact On Deal

“We think a significant majority of the hacked accounts could be Mail users, who are sticky given email is an integral part of their online identities,” the analyst pointed out.

However, assuming that 50 percent had already changed their password, 5 percent churn in the affected accounts and that each user is valued at a 50 percent premium to non-logged-in users, Peck estimates a potential 2 percent adjustment to the deal value.

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Posted In: Analyst ColorReiterationAnalyst RatingsRobert S. PeckSunTrust Robinson Humphrey
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