SUNNYVALE, Calif. _ In the first firm signal that Silicon Valley's most closely watched deal will go through, Verizon said Tuesday it will buy Yahoo for $4.48 billion, a price that reflects a $350 million discount.
"We have always believed this acquisition makes strategic sense," Marni Walden, executive vice president of Verizon, said in a statement. "We look forward to moving ahead expeditiously so that we can quickly welcome Yahoo's tremendous talent and assets into our expanding portfolio in the digital advertising space."
In the wake of two record-setting data breaches at Yahoo, Verizon had refused until Tuesday to confirm it would buy Yahoo, saying it was investigating the hacks, which saw more than a billion accounts compromised in one incident and at least half a billion in another.
Yahoo is facing more than two dozen class-action lawsuits by users and at least one by shareholders over the hacks.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Yahoo to determine if it notified investors of the data breaches in a timely manner. One SEC filing from Yahoo revealed the company knew of the smaller data breach in 2014, the year it happened, but didn't disclose it for nearly two years.
Under the terms of the deal announced Tuesday, once the sale closes, Yahoo and Verizon will share equally any financial costs from non-SEC government investigations and third-party lawsuits. Yahoo will pay costs arising from shareholder lawsuits and SEC probes.
"We continue to be very excited to join forces with Verizon and AOL," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said Tuesday in a joint statement with Verizon. "This transaction will accelerate Yahoo's operating business especially on mobile, while effectively separating our Asian asset equity stakes.
"It is an important step to unlock shareholder value for Yahoo, and we can now move forward with confidence and certainty. We have a terrific, loyal, experienced team at Yahoo."
Mayer will leave Yahoo's board once the deal goes through, and Yahoo will become an investment company called Altaba, managing holdings in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, according to an earlier SEC filing.
The sale is to close between April and June, the companies said.
