Yahoo will change its name to Altaba following the close of its acquisition by Verizon.
Marissa Mayer will step down from the company’s Board of Directors upon closing of the deal. David Filo, Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Hill, Jane Shaw and Maynard Webb will also resign from the Board.
No timeline was given for completion of the sale.
Yahoo! — One Billion Accounts Compromised
Yahoo! confirmed that hackers stole data and compromised more than one billion user accounts in August 2013. The exploit was first disclosed by Yahoo! in November and is most likely different from incident disclosed on September 22, 2016.
Separately, Yahoo previously disclosed that its outside forensic experts were investigating the creation of forged cookies that could allow an intruder to access users’ accounts without a password. Based on the ongoing investigation, the company believes an unauthorized third party accessed the company’s proprietary code to learn how to forge cookies. The outside forensic experts have identified user accounts for which they believe forged cookies were taken or used. Yahoo is notifying the affected account holders, and has invalidated the forged cookies. The company has connected some of this activity to the same state-sponsored actor believed to be responsible for the data theft the company disclosed on September 22, 2016.
https://yahoo.com/security-update
Yahoo Cites State Actor for Massive Security Breach
Yahoo believes a state-sponsored actor breached its network in late 2014 and may have stole names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers from at least 500 million accounts.
Yahoo said its ongoing investigation suggests that stolen information did not include unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information.
Verizon Confirms $4.8 Billion Acquisition of Yahoo
Verizon confirmed a deal to acquire Yahoo for $4.8 billion in cash. The deal does not include Yahoo’s cash, its shares in Alibaba Group Holdings, its shares in Yahoo Japan, Yahoo’s convertible notes, certain minority investments, and Yahoo’s non-core patents (called the Excalibur portfolio). Yahoo will remain a registered, publicly traded investment company holding these assets, and will change its name once the deal closes.
Yahoo, which was founded in 1994 and is based in Sunnyvale, California, remains one the most visited news and media website, with over 7 billion views per month, along with leading web services with email, sports, etc..
Yahoo claims 600 million monthly active users. Yahoo’s email service has 225 million monthly active users.
Verizon said the acquisition, combined with its AOL property, gives its more than 25 digital content/service brands in areas ranging from sports and entertainment news to online information services.
“Just over a year ago we acquired AOL to enhance our strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers. The acquisition of Yahoo will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company, and help accelerate our revenue stream in digital advertising.” Lowell McAdam, Verizon Chairman and CEO
http://www.yahoo.com
