Verizon Communications, Inc. (VZ), is an American broadband and telecommunications company, the largest U.S. wireless communications service provider as of September 2014, and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is based at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, but is incorporated in Delaware. What eventually became Verizon was founded as Bell Atlantic, which was one of the seven Baby Bells that were formed after AT&T Corporation was forced to relinquish its control of the Bell System by order of the Justice Department of the United States. Bell Atlantic came into existence in 1984 with a footprint from New Jersey to Virginia, with each area having a separate operating company (consisting of New Jersey Bell, Bell of Pennsylvania, Diamond State Telephone, and C&P Telephone). As part of the rebranding that the Baby Bells took in the mid-1990s, all of the operating companies assumed the Bell Atlantic name. In 1997, Bell Atlantic expanded into New York and the New England states by merging with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX. In addition, Bell Atlantic moved their headquarters from Philadelphia into the old NYNEX headquarters and rebranded the entire company as Bell Atlantic. In 2000 Bell Atlantic merged with GTE, which operated telecommunications companies across most of the rest of the country that was not already in Bell Atlantic's footprint. Bell Atlantic, the surviving company, changed its name to "Verizon", a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for "truth") and horizon. As of 2016, Verizon is one of three companies that had their roots in the former Baby Bells. The other two, like Verizon, exist as a result of mergers among fellow former Baby Bell members. One, SBC Communications, bought out its former parent AT&T Corporation and assumed the AT&T name. The other, CenturyLink, was formed initially in 2011 by the acquisition of Qwest (formerly named US West).
Verizon Said to Proceed With Yahoo Bid as Google Weighs Offer (Bloomberg) -- Verizon Communications Inc. plans to make a first-round bid for Yahoo Inc.’s Web business next week, and is willing to acquire the company’s Yahoo Japan Corp. stake to help sweeten the offer, according to people familiar with the matter. Google, the main division of Alphabet Inc., is also considering bidding for Yahoo’s core business, a separate person said. Potential suitors AT&T Inc. and Comcast have decided against bidding, some of the people said, asking not to be identified as the discussions aren’t public. Microsoft Corp., which failed with a hostile bid for Yahoo in 2008, won’t bid this time, another person said. Time Inc. is still evaluating a bid, while private equity funds Bain and TPG -- among others -- are also planning to make a run at the business, either alone or by backing a strategic acquirer, the people said. While the buyout firms haven’t yet paired themselves with a strategic buyer, they are open to the idea of doing so, the people said. First-round bids for the company’s main Web assets are due April 11, a person with knowledge of the matter said last week. Three Banks Verizon and its subsidiary AOL Inc. are working with at least three financial advisers on the Yahoo bid, said three of the people. Hiring so many banks is a sign that Verizon is serious about its takeover plans -- it has said since late last year that it was interested in buying some or all of Yahoo. Verizon, which has a market value of about $213 billion, could give the Yahoo Japan stake to its shareholders or sell it, one of the people said. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo would prefer to sell its 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, worth about $8.5 billion, along with the core business, Bloomberg reported last month. The valuation of the combined assets would make it more difficult for private equity firms to finance a bid for both parts. Representatives for Yahoo, AT&T, Comcast, Time, TPG and Verizon declined to comment. Representatives for Bain and Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Revenue Drop Based on the financial information that it’s seen, Verizon values Yahoo’s core business at less than $8 billion, one of the people said. Verizon, as well as some private equity firms, met with Microsoft last month to talk about potential funding for a bid, people familiar with the matter said at the time. Microsoft hasn’t committed any funding and is unlikely to provide anything more than a token investment to the winning bidder, one of the people said. A spokesman for Microsoft declined to comment. Yahoo’s projected revenue will drop almost 15 percent and earnings by more than 20 percent for 2016, according to a slide deck it released to potential bidders, Re/code reported Wednesday. Verizon would replace Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Marni Walden, Verizon’s executive vice president, who would run a combined Yahoo and AOL, two of the people said. Still on Deck Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. has always had tepid interest in buying Yahoo, two of the people said. So far, discussions have centered around Yahoo Japan, in which Softbank is the majority shareholder, paying a reduced licensing fee to Yahoo. The two sides are in active discussions to lower this fee, which stands at three percent of gross revenue, before any deal to sell Yahoo is announced. Yahoo Japan has argued the fee is too high because Yahoo hasn’t invested in technology the Asian company can use, causing the brand to suffer, one of the people said. A Softbank representative declined to comment. Yahoo’s Alternatives Yahoo said it would explore strategic alternatives, including selling its main Internet operations, earlier this year after scrapping a long-time plan to spin off its valuable Asian assets. The company’s stock has declined about 20 percent in the past 12 months as turnaround efforts led by CEO Mayer stalled and sales have sagged, leaving the company vulnerable to activist investors. Last month, CFO Ken Goldman said the board committee working on a possible sale of the core operations is “more active than anyone can possibly believe.” Activist Starboard Value, a longtime Yahoo critic, said in March it was fed up with the Web portal’s leadership and called for the board to be completely replaced. The activist fund, which recently increased its Yahoo holdings to 1.7 percent, said the board has failed to deliver results. The current board can’t be trusted to weigh the options that will best serve investors, and it’s important for the activist to be involved to ensure a “full and fair sale process,” according to a letter from Starboard CEO Jeffrey Smith. Smith has put his own name in as one of the hedge fund’s director nominees to the board. LINK - http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...h-yahoo-bid-as-google-weighs-offer/ar-BBru6le
Unions for 36,000 Verizon workers threaten to strike Unions representing more than 36,000 Verizon landline phone and cable workers are threatening a strike starting Wednesday morning if the company doesn't agree to a new contract. The unions, the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, say Verizon wants to freeze pensions, make layoffs easier and rely more on contract workers. Verizon says there are health care issues that need to be addressed for both retirees and workers as medical costs have grown, and it wants "greater flexibility" to manage its employees. The latest contract had expired last August. Both sides say negotiations have been unsuccessful. Verizon Communications says it has trained thousands of nonunion employees to fill in if the strike takes place in nine Eastern states and Washington, D.C. The company had 178,000 employees as of December. The last Verizon strike was in 2011 and lasted for two weeks. LINK - http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...verizon-workers-threaten-to-strike/ar-BBrDbLK
Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers to go on strike Wednesday Nearly 40,000 Verizon (VZ) workers will be walking off their jobs Wednesday, union officials said. The workers will begin their strike at 6:00am on Wednesday from Massachusetts to Virginia, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said in a statement. Read full article here: http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...-workers-to-go-on-strike-wednesday/ar-BBrH31N
The workers went on strike today Chris and I think that is what dragged down VZ and the whole telecom sector. Nearly 40,000 Verizon workers go on strike http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nearly-40000-verizon-workers-go-on-strike-2016-04-13?siteid=yhoof2
The last strike lasted two weeks. I wonder if this one will follow the same trend and we could see the stock shoot back up when a new agreement is reached between Verizon and the Union.
Verizon Communications Inc.: VZ Stock Threatened by Nearly 40,000 Workers on Strike This is a truly massive strike that could have serious implications for VZ Read full article here: http://investorplace.com/2016/04/verizon-vz-verizon-stock-price/#.Vw7jm_krIdU
Verizon Revenue Misses, Warns Strike May Hit Q2 Profit Verizon Communications (VZ) early Thursday reported in-line Q1 EPS but its revenue missed Wall Street views. The phone company reiterated guidance for flat full-year adjusted earnings. Verizon said current-quarter profit could be pressured by the strike of 39,000 wireline workers, which began April 13. Verizon said Q1 profit rose 4% to $1.06 from the year-earlier period, with revenue rising less than 1% to $32.17 billion. Analysts had modeled revenue of $32.46 billion. Excluding AOL, acquired in June 2015, Verizon said Q1 revenue fell 1.5%. Wireless revenue fell 1.4% to $22 billion. Verizon, which has stated its interest in acquiring Yahoo (YHOO), had $104 billion in net debt as of March 31, down slightly from $109 billion a year earlier. Verizon said it had a net loss of 8,000 postpaid phone subscribers, far less than the 138,000 postpaid phone customers shed in the year-earlier period. The company said it added 36,000 FiOS video customers in Q1, down from the 90,000 added in Q1 2015. It added 98,000 FiOS Internet customers, down from 133,000. In early April, Verizon closed a deal to sell wireline assets in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications (FTR) for $10.5 billion. Verizon stock was down 2% in premarket trading Thursday, near 52. Verizon stock touched a 16-year high of 54.49 on April 5. Top rival AT&T (T) is slated to report its Q1 earnings on April 26. http://www.investors.com/news/techn...-q2-profit/?ven=YahooCP&src=AURLLED&ven=yahoo
Verizon and unions reach tentative agreement to end strike Labor Secretary Tom Perez said Friday that telecom giant Verizon and two unions representing its workers reached a tentative agreement that will end a massive, six-week strike. Read full article here: http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...-tentative-agreement-to-end-strike/ar-BBtz5M6
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) Strike Ends as a Win-Win http://investorplace.com/2016/05/verizon-vz-stock-strike/#.V03RG_krKM8
This was an ugly strike. The union guys were sabotaging lines, causing a big headache for the repair guys that had to go out and fix outages.
Bought some calls on the dip 7/11: VZ AUG 19 2016 57.50 C BOUGHT TO OPEN 6 CONTRACTS OF OPTION VZ AUG 19 2016 57.50 C AT $0.47
Verizon Downgraded On Valuation, Uncertainty Over Yahoo, iPhone 7 Oopenheimer & Co. downgraded Verizon Communications (VZ) stock on a number of factors, including valuation, uncertainty over its possible acquisition of Yahoo (YHOO), wireless revenue growth and the outcome of a radio spectrum auction. In addition, Apple's (AAPL) expected rollout of the iPhone 7 this fall could pressure wireless profit margins, said Oppenheimer analyst Tim Horan. Verizon stock has run up more than 20% in 2016, while AT&T (T) stock has gained 24%, amid growing investor demand for dividend-paying stocks as global interest rates remain historically low. http://www.investors.com/news/techn...on-valuation-uncertainty-over-yahoo-iphone-7/
Verizon emerges as front-runner in Yahoo auction -sources July 22 (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc is focusing on U.S. telecommunications company Verizon Communications Inc as the buyer of its core business to after reviewing final bids that it received this week, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. A deal would boost Verizon's AOL internet business, which the company acquired last year for $4.4 billion, by giving it access to Yahoo's advertising technology tools, as well other assets such as search, mail, messenger and real estate. These synergies have made Verizon the favorite among industry analysts to prevail in the auction. The sale would also mark the end of Yahoo as an operating company, leaving it only as the owner of a 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, as well as its 15 percent interest in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Those two stakes account for most of Yahoo's $37 billion market capitalization. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yahoo-focused-selling-core-assets-132208245.html
Yahoo to Announce Verizon Deal By Tuesday The Yahoo board has chosen to accept Verizon’s acquisition bid, and Recode reports that competing bidders were informed of the decision Saturday afternoon. The news is expected to be made public on Monday, though sources suggested that timeline wasn’t set in stone. They did say the parties hoped to make the announcement before Verizon’s Tuesday earnings report. Details of the deal are still unknown, but numbers for the acquisition have hovered around $5 billion. The acquisition would include Yahoo’s core editorial and search businesses. As Matthew Ingram explained earlier in the process, the deal would bolster Verizon’s move into digital advertising, aligning with last year’s $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL. http://fortune.com/2016/07/24/yahoo-verizon-deal-tuesday/?xid=yahoo_fortune
Verizon's Yahoo Buy Official, To Take On Google, Facebook Verizon Communications (VZ) on Monday agreed to buy Yahoo's (YHOO) core internet business for $4.83 billion, doubling down on its move into internet content and mobile advertising. The Yahoo acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2017, Verizon said. Verizon does not plan a conference call today but will discuss its digital media strategy when it reports Q2 earnings on Tuesday, a spokesperson said. http://www.investors.com/news/technology/verizons-yahoo-buy-official-will-take-on-google-facebook/ The sale does not include Yahoo's cash, its shares in Alibaba Group Holdings (BABA) or Yahoo Japan, Yahoo's convertible notes, certain minority investments, and Yahoo's non-core patents. Verizon stock rose 0.5% in premarket trading on the stock market today. Yahoo fell 0.5%, after climbing to a one-year high on Friday amid reports that a Verizon deal was near. Now that Verizon's long courtship of Yahoo is over, how will the marriage work out? Verizon bought AOL for $4.4 billion in 2015 and has been investing heavily in its Go90 mobile video service. http://www.investors.com/news/technology/verizons-yahoo-buy-official-will-take-on-google-facebook/
Finally the deal is through (for an adequate price too). We will at last get to see what was the point of this.
Verizon reports bigger-than-expected fall in quarterly revenue http://finance.yahoo.com/news/verizon-reports-bigger-expected-fall-114455912.html
