Biz! Formerly! Known! As! Yahoo! Settles! Data! Breach! Cases! To! The! Tune! Of! $47m!

The company formerly known as Yahoo! is close to settling cases related to the mammoth data security breach it covered up almost four years ago at a cost of around $47m.

In its latest SEC filing, Altaba, as Yahoo is now known, said various legal actions spawned by the 2014 attack were nearly resolved.

Yahoo! execs knew that Russian hackers had stolen the firm's entire database of hundreds of millions of usernames, email addresses, phone numbers, encrypted passwords and security questions just days after the break-in happened, in December 2014.

However, they waited two years to 'fess up, only doing so when Verizon was in the process of buying its operating business – prompting a whopping fine from the SEC and various lawsuits.

Altaba said the parties in the consumer class-action suit had reached an agreement in principle to settle all pending claims, subject to certain conditions, which includes court approval.

If a definitive agreement is reached, and the court approves this, the firm will be responsible for half the total costs and Verizon – which entered into a commitment when it acquired the firm's legacy internet business – for the other half.

The parties in the shareholder derivative litigation have negotiated a definitive deal, Altaba said, while a court has approved a settlement in its federal securities class-action case.

The firm said it would be forking out an additional $47m for litigation settlement expenses as a result of the developments in the three cases.

"These developments mark a significant milestone in cleaning up our contingent liabilities related to the Yahoo data breach," Altaba's chief exec Thomas McInerney said in a letter to shareholders.

The holding firm also confirmed it had completed the sale of its remaining Yahoo! Japan stake at $3.16 a share, with the sale of $4.3bn of stock, making it now mostly a holding company for its stake in Chinese giant Alibaba. It has nearly a 14.9 per cent holding in the firm.

Altaba has confirmed a $5.75bn share repurpose with the proceeds of this sale and the related sale of $2bn of Yahoo! Japan stock to SoftBank. ®