Verizon says it’s still mulling what to do about its $4.8 billion Yahoo deal after the internet company revealed massive hacks of customer information.
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The telecom giant had wanted Yahoo and its huge user base to help it build out a digital-ad arm as the wireless business gets tougher — roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults already have a smartphone — but the security breaches have complicated the deal.
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While Yahoo said Monday that the sale’s close would likely be delayed by up to three months, until sometime between April and the end of June, Verizon said Tuesday that it is still reviewing what effect the security breaches had on Yahoo’s business.
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Verizon could try to walk away from the deal or lower its price if it thinks the hacks made Yahoo’s services less popular.
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Recent business trends at Verizon underscore why it wants to invest in digital advertising.
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The country’s biggest mobile carrier added fewer new cellphone or tablet customers in the last three months of 2016 than it did in 2015, and wireless service revenue — what cellphone customers pay for their plans — dropped 4.9 percent.
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That metric fell 5.4 percent for the year, and Verizon said Tuesday that wireless service revenue won’t start growing until 2018.
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Wireless revenue overall fell 1.5 percent in the quarter, to $23.4 billion.
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In its smaller wireline business — cable, phone and internet for businesses and consumers — revenue fell 3.1 percent to $7.81 billion.
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The New York company’s overall net income fell 17 percent to $4.6 billion, or $1.10 per share, in the last three months of 2016. Stripping out one-time events, earnings came to 86 cents per share, three cents shy of what analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research had projected.
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Revenue fell 5.6 percent to $32.34 billion, topping analysts’ estimate.
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Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. fell $2.33, or 4.5 percent,…