Yahoo Evades Tough Questions By Canceling Earnings Call

Things aren’t really going great for Yahoo these days. Not long after the company inked its $4.8 billion acquisition deal with Verizon it was revealed that Yahoo was hit by a major cyber attack which compromised details of more than 500 million users. There have been reports that Verizon might demand a $1 billion discount on the deal now that the hack has been made public but while the company has denied those reports, Yahoo is giving people more reason to speculate by canceling its customary earnings call scheduled for next week.

It goes without saying that financial analysts would have asked some very tough questions about the pending deal with Verizon. Given the amount of bad press it has had over the past couple of weeks, Yahoo may be wishing to lay low for a while.

Yahoo has confirmed that there will be no conference call after it releases its third-quarter earnings next week “due to the pending transaction with Verizon.” Financial analysts won’t be given a chance to question the company’s executives about the hack and whether that’s going to have an impact on the pending transaction.

Verizon may have initially denied reports that it’s seeking a discount on the deal now that such a massive hack has been made public but it’s still leaving the door open. The company’s general counsel Craig Silliman said last week that “we have a reasonable basis to believe right now that the impact is material,” it’s being speculated that the use of the word material here underlines the financial implications of the entire episode.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Verizon, Yahoo