Yahoo (YHOO) reportedly will shave $250 million off its purchase price but will be acquired by Verizon Communications (VZ) amid lingering questions over two massive data breaches at the internet firm.
A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment on the reports. Verizon, according to earlier reports, had been seeking a $1 billion haircut on the deal.
Verizon in July reached an agreement to buy the core Yahoo web portal business for $4.83 billion. Verizon also assumed $1.1 billion in employee stock costs, bringing the total cost closer to $6 billion.
Yahoo stock ended the regular trading session up 1.4% to 45.65 on the stock market today, while shares of Verizon continued sagging amid intensified competition in wireless services. Verizon stock was down 0.4% to 48.08 and has been on a downtrend since its disappointing earnings report on Jan. 24.
IBD'S TAKE: Alibaba Group on Wednesday was taken off IBD's Leaderboard, which follows top stocks from their work on forming bases, through their breakouts, to their post-breakout action, up to the point where they start topping. Tesla, Weibo, Netflix and others are still on the Leaderboard.
Yahoo owns a 15% stake in China's Alibaba Group (BABA), which is not included in the Verizon deal.
The internet firm's stock has climbed lately along with Alibaba's valuation, despite uncertainty over whether the Verizon deal would close because of the data breaches.
The closing of the Verizon-Yahoo deal had been delayed into the second quarter of 2017. U.S. Senate Republicans this week asked for more information about the data breaches.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been probing the email breaches, which Yahoo disclosed last fall though they occurred in 2013 and 2014.
Verizon plans to combine Yahoo with AOL, which it bought in 2015 for $4.4 billion.
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