Verizon’s top lawyer told reporters Thursday that Yahoo’s September announcement of a data breach of more than 500 million e-mail accounts constitutes a potential material impact that would allow for the mobile powerhouse to pull out of the $4.83 billion deal. That arrangement, which was announced in July 2016, has yet to formally close.

"I think we have a reasonable basis to believe right now that the impact is material and we're looking to Yahoo to demonstrate to us the full impact,” Craig Silliman said, according to Reuters. “If they believe that it's not then they'll need to show us that.”

Silliman declined to respond to questions about whether Verizon was trying to negotiate a lower price.

As Ars reported in June 2016, Verizon is already the owner of AOL after buying that company for $4.4 billion last year. Buying Yahoo would give the telco control over a second giant of the early Web. The AOL purchase provided Verizon with numerous news sites, a large advertising business, and more than 2 million dial-up Internet subscribers. Yahoo would give AOL a large base of website visitors and more advertising revenue.