Why Twitter, Yahoo, Illumina, and Two Other Stocks Are Trending on Tuesday

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) may not be trying to knock off $1 billion from the purchase price of Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) after all. In direct contrast to a past New York Post report, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said at a conference in Menlo Park:

“That [Post report] is just total speculation — we still see a real value to the asset there. But in fairness, we’re still understanding what was going on, to define whether it’s a material impact to the business or not. But the industrial logic of doing this merger still makes a lot of sense … I’m hoping we can get through all this stuff and get to the close [of the purchase].”

In addition, McAdam also said he understood that the internet was a dangerous place and filled with entities with a lot of resources (such as state actors). Occasionally some of the entities are ‘going to land a punch’ and there will be a security breach. Given that McAdam wants the deal to close and has called the Post report speculation, it seems that Yahoo shareholders can breathe a sign of relief knowing that the worst case scenario of Verizon walking away is now much less likely. Among the funds in our database, 81 funds were bullish on Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) and 52 funds held shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) at the end of the second quarter.

Disclosure: none