Verizon, which today announced its intention to purchase Yahoo for $4.8 billion, will be on the hook to Mozilla for more than $1 billion through 2019.
According to Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, Verizon may be liable for partial payments even if Mozilla cuts ties to Yahoo and seeks another search provider.
Earlier this month, Recode and the New York Times claimed that the 2014 Yahoo-Mozilla contact gave Mozilla the right to switch to another search provider if Yahoo was sold.
