Verizon: Yahoo hack could impact deal

Verizon’s general counsel on Thursday said the company believes the data breach at Yahoo could impact the tech company’s value, raising concerns about a potential deal.

“I think we have a reasonable basis to believe right now that the impact is material,” Verizon general counsel Craig Sillman said in a small roundtable meeting with reporters, according to the Washington Post.

Sillman said Yahoo had the burden of proving that the hack wouldn’t affect their company’s value.

{mosads}His remarks are the first time Verizon has said the cyberattack could hurt their $4.8 billion deal to purchase Yahoo.

In September, Yahoo confirmed that it had fallen victim to the largest cyberattack of a single company, with data from 500 million accounts stolen in 2014. The tech firm claimed that it was not aware of the hack when the deal was announced in July.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam previously dismissed reports that his company wanted to use the hack to knock $1 billion off the price tag for Yahoo.

Yahoo has said the hack was “state-sponsored” hack, but Sillman said that from Verizon’s perspective, that would have little bearing.

“[It] isn’t really relevant in terms of what we’re looking at,” Sillman said. “The question is whether this [had] a material or an adverse effect on the asset we are buying.”

“We are confident in Yahoo’s value and we continue to work towards integration with Verizon,” Yahoo told reporters in a statement Thursday.

Sillman noted though that Verizon had not received enough information from Yahoo to make a firm decision on how to proceed on the deal.

“We’re certainly not done with the amount of information we need to receive from them.” he said.

“We still have a significant way to go in terms of the information we need to get before we can make our final determinations,” he added.

McAdam said earlier this week that Verizon is only 50 or 60 percent done with its investigation of the Yahoo breach.