SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo said Monday its $4.8 billion deal to sell its core internet assets to US telecom titan Verizon has been delayed several months.

The closing originally set for this quarter has been pushed into next  quarter due to "work required to meet closing conditions," the California online pioneer said in a statement, adding that it was "working expeditiously to close the transaction as soon as practicable."

The news came in an earnings release showing Yahoo swung to a profit of $162 million in the final three months of last year.

The deal with Verizon, which would end Yahoo's run of more than 20 years as an independent company, has been thrown into doubt following disclosures of two huge data breaches.

Yahoo said Monday it is hustling to ramp up security as it grapples with the aftermath of epic hacks.
"Our top priority continues to be enhancing security for our users," Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer said.

She added that "approximately 90 percent of our daily active users have already taken or do not need to take remedial action to protect their accounts, and we're aggressively continuing to drive this number up."

Yahoo boasted having more than a billion users monthly in 2016, with more than 650 million of those people connecting from mobile devices. -APP