SUNNYVALE, Calif. _ As the discounted sale of Yahoo to Verizon was confirmed by both companies Tuesday, Verizon offered words of assurance to Yahoo email users.
"We always make sure that customers have continuity of service," Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni said. "We're not planning on having anything disappear."
Yahoo and Verizon said Tuesday that the sale would go ahead, for $4.48 billion, which reflects a $350 million discount agreed upon after Yahoo late last year announced two record-setting hacks of users' personal information.
Verizon is in the midst of planning the integration of the two firms and will inform Yahoo users about any service changes, Varettoni said.
"Yahoo's businesses, its customers, its relationships are very important for us," Varettoni said.
The breaches of more than a billion accounts in one hack and at least a half billion in another had thrown the deal into jeopardy, with Verizon refusing until Tuesday to say publicly whether it planned to go ahead with the purchase.
On Tuesday, Verizon executive vice president Marni Walden said in a statement that Verizon had "always believed this acquisition makes strategic sense.
"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."
Yahoo will come to Verizon with baggage: The Sunnyvale tech giant is facing more than two dozen class-action lawsuits by users and at least one by shareholders over the data thefts.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Yahoo to determine if it notified investors of the 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 the joint statement. "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.
