'at one point the federal government threatened to fine the company $250,000 a day if it failed to comply with the data requests'<p>Weren't these requests, which Yahoo objected to, intended to stay secret, by the wishes of the government?<p>Consider if Yahoo refused to honor the requests, and began accruing the fines. Presumably, if they didn't pay the huge bill for their fines, what would happen?<p>Surely, $250k/day would rack up fast... As I see it, eventually Yahoo would rack up such a bill that they couldn't afford it, and any collection of the fee by the government would force Yahoo to close its doors. At that point, surely they'd have to reveal something to the general public about said requests, and the fines, and everything else going on behind the scenes...