
Verizon wants $1B off Yahoo sale price - arman0
http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/10/06/yahoo-scandals-verizon-wants-1-billion-off-sale-price-report-says/
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alrs
This is great news. The only way we will have a chance to start doing things
right as an industry is if there are serious consequences for doing things
wrong.

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newman314
Maybe I'm just being cynical, but IMO this isn't as much as about "doing the
right thing and establishing consequence" as it is an opportunity to get
something for cheaper.

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maverick_iceman
This is how the free market punishes wrongdoings.

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__derek__
Yet the beneficiary is one of the worst offenders when it comes to domestic
spying.

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jimmywanger
It makes sense. Yahoo's last assets were its fantasy sports league, its email
service, maybe Yahoo finance, its brand, and its massive user base.

Within the last couple of weeks, they've tarnished both their brand and their
email service. I doubt very much that their fantasy leagues and Yahoo finance
really bring as much revenue as ads from email and ads targeted to its massive
user base.

What exactly is Verizon bidding on now?

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nugget
Email is the crown jewel - by far their most lucrative property. Verizon may
be waiting to see if there's any measurable user churn due to the recent news,
although that takes some time to shake out.

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jimmywanger
I think you also missed their homepage and useraccounts, which continues to
get a huge amount of traffic.

Granted, people who use Yahoo´s homepage/homepage probably aren´t the most
sophisticated users, but the sheer number of eyeballs probably counts for
something.

So you have the brand/homepage, which is tarnished by their leak and
subsequent refusal to reset passwords (anecdotally, even my mom asked me how
to reset her password) and their email is tarnished (although I don't know how
much their userbase cares about privacy) by their scanning of emails for the
NSA.

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dandr01d
So what are the chances that Verizon is leaking all this stuff itself to get
Yahoo for cheap?

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M_Grey
I think it's too damaging to the long-term value of the brand.

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pcurve
Unless Verizon is having second thoughts about the purchase.

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bjterry
A deal team "pushing back hard" is only as good as the next best offer. (But
they have to say that of course.)

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shmerl
Instead of buying AOL and Yahoo, Verizon should have invested in network
upgrades.

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astrodust
How's that going to boost the stock price? If you know the answer maybe you
should be working for Verizon.

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shmerl
_> How's that going to boost the stock price?_

It would provide long term benefits, which can translate in better stock price
as well. Key word - long term. Most Verizon "investors" can't operate in such
terms however, they only see short term or nothing. It's a common mindset of
the Wall Street today anyway. That's why Verizon let their networks rot, and
doesn't replace them with fiber everywhere.

Working for Verizon? No, thanks. Until their whole upper management will be
replaced, I doubt they'll improve in major ways.

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WalterBright
> Most Verizon "investors" can't operate in such terms however, they only see
> short term or nothing. It's a common mindset of the Wall Street today
> anyway.

That doesn't explain many, many companies with high P/E ratios (such as AMZN).

If you know which companies have sacrificed the long term for short term gain,
then you'd get rich shorting their stocks.

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rchaud
Did Verizon know about the data breach before they agreed to the deal? What
were Yahoo's obligations (if any) to disclose these things to a potential
buyer? A breach of this scale can't help but take a huge bite out of Yahoo's
brand value and user trust.

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newscracker
In a way, to me it seems like Verizon not buying Yahoo may be good for Yahoo's
users. But if that were to happen, who would be the others to come back and
attempt to buy it? From past news it seemed like others' interest fizzled out.

