Soon after Yahoo disclosed the first of two enormous data breaches that threatened to upend a $4.8 billion deal it had reached with Verizon Communications, the embattled company began to confront an unpleasant potential future.
Yahoo could have battled Verizon to preserve the original price tag, a campaign that could have ended up in a Delaware courtroom — and led to months of bitter legal wrangling. Moreover, that strategy would have run the risk of allowing Verizon to walk away from the purchase altogether.
