Back in August a hacker going by the name of ‘Peace’ claimed to have breached Yahoo and put the usernames and passwords for over 200 million accounts up for sale.

Yahoo at the time said that it was aware of the claims, but did nothing more than that. Now it seems that the company is about to officially acknowledge sometime this week the massive data breach, which could have implications for its sale to Verizon.

According to Recode, “sources were unspecific about the extent of the incursion, since there is the likelihood of government investigations and legal action related to the breach, they noted that it is widespread and serious.”

A couple of months ago Yahoo only said that it was investigating the claims made by the hacker and whether or not the account details were actually being sold online for as little as $1800.

According to those in the know, the data contains user names, easily decrypted passwords, personal information like birth dates and other email addresses.

This certainly won’t look good on CEO Marissa Mayer’s CV. “The confirmation of such an extensive hack is also another blemish on the record of CEO Marissa Mayer, a vaunted former Google exec, who has presided over numerous declines in the business since she arrived four years ago. Her inability to turn Yahoo around or innovate any new products eventually led to the sale,” Recode wrote.

Verizon has been on talks with the internet giant over a possible $4.8 billion sale, but if the hack is confirmed, it could mean a lot of issues for the new owners.

Although the deal is said to be in advanced stages, an incident of this type will no doubt play a role in the share price.

[Source – Recode]