Verizon Executive Says Yahoo Deal 'Absolutely' Still Makes Sense--Update
October 26 2016 - 2:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Deepa Seetharaman
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- Verizon Communications Inc. thinks its
planned acquisition of Yahoo Inc. "absolutely" still makes sense,
but the carrier still needs a lot of information about the major
customer-data breach at the internet company that surfaced shortly
after the agreement, Verizon Executive Vice President Marni Walden
said Wednesday.
Verizon hopes to get the results of Yahoo's review of the
hacking issue within 60 days, Ms. Walden said here at The Wall
Street Journal's WSJDLive 2016 technology conference. She declined
to say if there is a scenario in which Verizon might walk away from
its $4.8 billion deal to buy Yahoo, announced in July.
"What we have to be careful about is what we don't know," Ms.
Walden said. "We're not going to jump off a cliff blindly so we
need to have more information before we can determine, but
strategically the deal still makes a lot of sense to us."
Yahoo announced on Sept. 22 that user data from 500 million
accounts were stolen in a 2014 breach that the company says it
discovered after the deal was announced.
Verizon is "working closely" with the Yahoo, which is
investigating the hack, and Verizon still needs a lot of
information, Ms. Walden said. "We're hoping in the next 60 days or
less that we can have an outcome."
The Yahoo deal is part of Verizon's efforts to create a digital
advertising player that can serve as a meaningful rival to Facebook
Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google. Combining AOL and Yahoo would
allow Verizon to "assemble a relevant third player," Ms. Walden
said. "Putting them together gives us a better chance in the
marketplace."
After the Yahoo deal, Verizon will have spent roughly $10
billion to flesh out its content strategy, including its $4.4
billion AOL deal last year. Verizon calls the combination of AOL
and Yahoo "Media Co" -- Ms. Walden said she was open to suggestions
for better names -- each of which has media properties that draw a
lot of eyeballs. Ms. Walden said Verizon plans to maintain the
Yahoo brands.
Verizon's content strategy is mobile-first, focused on creating
short episodes of less than 10 minutes. She contrasted that with
the approach of AT&T Inc., which last week reached an $85.4
billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc., home of HBO, CNN, and the
Warner Bros. film and TV studio.
"They are going after a market that exists today -- and we're
going after where we think the market is headed," she said.
"We are working to create content that is meaningful to that
audience that's millennial or younger," she added. "Right now we're
not going out to make 'Game of Thrones,'" the HBO show, she
said.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 26, 2016 14:14 ET (18:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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