Gadfly's Ovide: Yahoo Is 'The Technology Industry's Most Hapless Company'

There are many adjectives that could be used to describe Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) after a new data breach disclosed this week could result in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) walking away from its planned $4.8 billion acquisition of some of Yahoo's assets.

Data Breach Ramifications

Gadfly's Shira Ovide hasn't shied away from using harsh words to describe Yahoo following the data breach. Simply put, Yahoo is now "the technology industry's most hapless company" and its "incompetence" could cost shareholders at least $1 billion if Verizon asks for a discount on its acquisition price.

According to Ovide, the investment community may be used to hearing non-stop disclosures surrounding hacking and data breaches, even from the Democratic National Committee. So if data breaches are a common occurrence, why is Yahoo in hot water?

Hot Water At A Boil

"If the market bets are right and Verizon shaves its acquisition price by $1 billion or more, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer may have hit an inglorious milestone," Ovide wrote. "Overseeing perhaps the costliest corporate cyberattack in history."

Bottom line, Yahoo's latest data breach is "incredible in both its scope and the inability of its target to identify and stop it." Ovide added that the hackers had "free rein" within Yahoo's systems to collect user data. Accordingly, Yahoo gets an "F- grade" for protecting their users personal information.

At last check, shares of Yahoo were up 1.73 percent at $39.07.