It was just announced that Verizon will be able to purchase Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) for $350 million less than it expected to pay. The total purchase price of the deal is expected to be $4.48 billion, which still must be approved by a vote of the shareholders. This could happen in April, but there are still plenty of questions left unanswered about Yahoo's expected disclosure of information related to the massive data breaches from 2013 and 2014. Some clarity about Yahoo's investigations of the data breaches will come from its required filing of regulatory reports in the coming weeks.
The magnitude of Yahoo's data breaches was directly responsible for the reduction in purchase price. There are quite a few lawsuits still pending as a result of the data breaches, which ended up with hackers selling Yahoo user's private information, such as passwords and emails, to third parties. While there is some speculation that the hackers were backed by a foreign government, this theory is still under investigation.
If the deal goes through as expected, the internet operations of Yahoo and Verizon would be combined. Verizon hopes to increase its share of digital advertising by harnessing the existing resources of Yahoo. Even though Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) continue to be the largest players in the land of digital advertising, Verizon remains hopeful that acquiring smaller players, such as Yahoo and AOL, will pay off in the long run in terms of having alternatives to the biggest names in town.
What has continued to prop up Yahoo's value even amidst fewer page views and its weakening share of the digital marketing world is its investment in Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), which account for $39 billion of Yahoo's total investments. In addition, Yahoo Japan is currently valued at about $9 billion, which will remain a part of Yahoo's Asian investments following its sale to Verizon.
In general, Verizon plans to maintain a distinct brand identity for Yahoo, which is what happened after Verizon's acquisition of AOL. Yahoo still garners a promising number of visitors to its sports, finance and news sites. Although Google has become the dominant player in free email service providers, Yahoo still has a loyal following of users who do not intend to switch to a more popular mode of email.
The big question that lingers for Yahoo investors is whether Marissa Mayer will stay on board as a Yahoo executive after the sale of the company. She has received more than her fair share of attention in the news lately for her failed attempts to get the company's earnings on the right track. She previously served as an executive for Google and was expected to be able to get Yahoo on the right course for retaining users and gaining a bigger share of the digital advertising market. She was unable to do so, but she is still considered a prominent figure in the digital world and may be asked to stay on in her current role to maintain the continuity of the brand after the sale.