NEW YORK (AP) - Yahoo shares slid Thursday on worries that Verizon will walk away or slash its $4.8 billion offer for the company's digital operations after another massive data breach.
Yahoo revealed on Wednesday that information was stolen from a href='https://apnews.com/674fba78245146c0871ee1b31bbe68bb/Yahoo's-big-breach-helps-usher-in-an-age-of-hacker-anxiety'more than 1 billion user/a accounts in 2013 after disclosing a separate hack in 2014 of some 500 million accounts in September.
Verizon had said it would reevaluate the Yahoo deal after the first hack, and said the same Wednesday after the latest revelation. Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni on Thursday declined to comment beyond the company's Wednesday-night statement. Yahoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The deal was expected to close by March 2017.
If the hacks drive Yahoo's users away, the company wouldn't be as valuable to the telecom giant in its quest to build a digital-ad business that could rival industry giants Google and Facebook.
Yahoo has said that the September announcement of the 2014 hack didn't hurt traffic to its services.
Yahoo shares fell 4.7 percent, or $1.91, to $39 in afternoon trading. Verizon shares rose 40 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $52.03.