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Verizon

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"Verizon" redirects here. For its subsidiaries, see Verizon Business and Verizon Wireless. For other uses, see Verizon (disambiguation).
Verizon Communications Inc.
Company typePublic (NYSE: VZ, Nasdaq: VZ)
Dow Jones Industrial Average Component
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1983
HeadquartersVerizon Building
Lower Manhattan, New York City
Key people
Ivan Seidenberg (Chairman & CEO)
Lowell McAdam (President & COO)
ServicesWireless
Telephone
Internet
Television
RevenueIncrease $107.808 billion (2009)[1]
30,467,000,000 United States dollar (2022) Edit this on Wikidata
Increase $6.707 billion (2009)
Total assetsIncrease $227.251 billion (2009)
Total equityIncrease $41.606 billion (2009)
Number of employees
222,900 (as of 2009)
WebsiteVerizon.com
South face of Verizon Building, the headquarters of Verizon, in 2005, with 7 World Trade Center to the right.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ, Nasdaq: VZ) is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It started in 1983 as Bell Atlantic (based in Philadelphia) with a footprint covering New Jersey to Virginia and NYNEX (based in New York City) with a footprint spanning from New York to Maine that emerged as part of the 1984 AT&T breakup into seven "Baby Bells." Prior to its transformation into Verizon, Bell Atlantic merged with Regional Bell Operating Company, NYNEX, in 1997. The name Verizon is a portmanteau of veritas and horizon,[2] and its pronunciation rhymes with horizon. The company's headquarters are located in the Verizon Building at 140 West Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.[3]

History

Verizon was founded as Bell Atlantic Corporation split from AT&T Co. It was one of the seven Baby Bells that were formed due to an anti-trust judgment against AT&T Co. Bell Atlantic then inherited seven of the Bell Operating Companies from American Telephone & Telegraph Company (later known as AT&T Corp.) following its breakup. Bell Atlantic's original roster of operating companies included:

Bell Atlantic originally operated in the U.S. states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C.

In 1994, Bell Atlantic became the first Regional Bell Operating Company to entirely drop the original names of its original operating companies. Ameritech and NYNEX soon followed (and SBC Communications in 2002) simply added d/b/a names to its operating companies; U S West and BellSouth had merged their operating companies. Operating company titles were simplified to:

  • Bell Atlantic—Delaware, Inc.
  • Bell Atlantic—Maryland, Inc.
  • Bell Atlantic—New Jersey, Inc.
  • Bell Atlantic—Pennsylvania, Inc.
  • Bell Atlantic—Virginia, Inc.
  • Bell Atlantic—Washington, D.C., Inc.
  • Bell Atlantic—West Virginia, Inc.

In 1996, CEO and Chairman Raymond W. Smith orchestrated Bell Atlantic's merger with NYNEX CEO Ivan G. Seidenberg. When it merged, it moved its corporate headquarters from Philadelphia to New York City where CEO's Smith and Seidenberg shared Co-CEO duties. NYNEX was consolidated into this name by 1997.

Prior to its merger with GTE, Bell Atlantic traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the "BEL" symbol.

GTE merger

Bell Atlantic merged with GTE on June 30, 2000 and changed its name to Verizon Communications Inc. It was among the largest mergers in United States business history. It was the result of a definitive merger agreement, dated July 27, 1998, between Bell Atlantic, based in New York City since the merger with NYNEX in 1996, and GTE, which was in the process of moving its headquarters from Stamford, Connecticut, to Irving, Texas.

The Bell Atlantic–GTE merger, priced at more than $52 billion at the time of the announcement, closed nearly two years later, following analysis and approvals by Bell Atlantic and GTE shareowners, 27 state regulatory commissions and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and clearance from the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) and various international agencies.

The merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, to form Verizon Communications, became effective on June 30, 2000, with an exchange ratio of 1.22 shares of Verizon Communications Common Stock for each share of GTE Common Stock owned. Fractional shares resulting from the exchange of GTE stock into Verizon Communications shares were sold at a price of $55.00 per share. Verizon began trading on the NYSE under its new "VZ" symbol on Monday, July 3, 2000.

Meanwhile, on September 21, 1999, Bell Atlantic and UK-based Vodafone AirTouch Plc (now Vodafone Group Plc) announced that they had agreed to create a new wireless business with a national footprint, a single brand and a common digital technology – composed of Bell Atlantic's and Vodafone's U.S. wireless assets (Bell Atlantic Mobile (which was previously called Bell Atlantic-NYNEX Mobile by 1997), AirTouch Cellular, PrimeCo Personal Communications, and AirTouch Paging). This wireless joint venture received regulatory approval in six months, and began operations as Verizon Wireless on April 4, 2000, kicking off the new "Verizon" brand name. GTE's wireless operations became part of Verizon Wireless – creating what was initially the nation's largest wireless company before Cingular Wireless acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004 – when the Bell Atlantic–GTE merger closed nearly three months later. Verizon then became the majority owner (55%) of Verizon Wireless.

Genuity was formerly the Internet division of GTE Corp and spun off in 2000.[4] Level 3 Communications acquired the assets of the bankrupt ISP in 2002 for only $137 million; a bargain-basement price considering the $616 million that a pre-Bell Atlantic-merger GTE paid for Genuity (then BBN Planet) in 1997.[5]

Merger effects

Note this section refers to land lines only, as Verizon Wireless operates nationwide.

Verizon shares were made a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on April 8, 2004.[6] Verizon currently has 140.3 million land lines in service. With the MCI merger, it has more than 250,000 employees. Verizon serves customers throughout much of the United States. The states to which it provides service include:

(#) Also served by Bell operating companies (refer below)

The Verizon corporate structure is now as follows:

(Verizon's original service area included West Virginia, which had been served by Bell Atlantic prior to the Verizon merger, under the operating company Verizon West Virginia, Inc. However, Verizon sold all of its West Virginia wireline assets to Frontier Communications as part of a larger deal that was finalized in 2010. (see Divestitures section))

Verizon also owns stakes in some international communications companies, most notably 23.14% of Vodafone Italy, and owned 50% of Gibtelecom from 1990 to 2007.

Divestitures

Due to the rigorous climate and high costs, GTE Alaska was sold to Alaska Power and Telephone Company rather than be merged with Verizon.

In 2002, Verizon sold GTE's former telephone operations in 3 states: Missouri and Alabama operations were sold to CenturyTel, who merged with Embarq in 2009 to become CenturyLink, and Kentucky operations were sold to Alltel, which later spun off its landline operations as Windstream. In 2005, Verizon sold off GTE's former telephone operations in Hawaii to The Carlyle Group, This operation is now known as Hawaiian Telcom.

On April 3, 2006 Verizon agreed to sell its stakes in Verizon Dominicana (operating in the Dominican Republic), CANTV of Venezuela, and Puerto Rico Telephone Company, Inc. (PRT) in Puerto Rico to Telmex and América Móvil for $3.7 billion.[7]

On January 16, 2007, Verizon New England operations in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont were split off into a new Bell Operating Company, spun off, and merged with FairPoint Communications, a deal which was finalized on April 1, 2008.

On May 13, 2009, Verizon announced it was selling all of Verizon's wireline assets in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin as well as some assets in California to Frontier Communications.[8] On July 1, 2010, the transfer of these assets to Frontier took place.[9]

MCI acquisition

File:Mci logo.png
MCI logo, 2003-2006.

On February 14, 2005, Verizon agreed to acquire MCI, formerly WorldCom, after SBC Communications agreed to acquire AT&T Corp. just a few weeks earlier.

Media coverage has focused on several ways in which that acquisition, once completed, would benefit Verizon, including economies of scale derived from a potential productivity boost to be achieved via the elimination of thousands of jobs at the combined company, and access to the large base of business customers currently served by MCI. The real benefit to Verizon was the acquisition of long-haul lines. The bulk of Verizon's business is concentrated in the eastern United States. This not only renders the company, effectively, a regional phone company, but also forces it to pay usage fees to long-haul carriers, such as former MCI, to complete calls for its customers whenever those calls go outside the Verizon "footprint". That need is obviated by the MCI acquisition and was key in the long term market position strategy. By January 6, 2006, MCI was incorporated into Verizon with the name Verizon Business. With this merger, Verizon also acquired the naming rights to the Washington, D.C. home of the Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals, the Verizon Center (formerly known as the MCI Center). Just prior to the acquisition, MCI had purchased an internet services company, Totality.

Verizon, with MCI, was the largest telecommunications company in the United States based on sales of $75.11 billion, profits of $7.4 billion and assets of $168.13 billion. After completion of the BellSouth/AT&T Inc. merger, AT&T Inc. became the largest telecommunications company in the world in terms of assets and profits.[10]

Terremark acquisition

Verizon Communications has agreed to buy Miami, Florida-based, Terremark Worldwide with value of USD 1.4 billion. The tender offer will be done before end of Q1 2011. Terremark offers cloud computing, collocation and managed hosting services at 13 data centers in the US, Europe and South America. Terremark will operate as an independent unit within Verizon and still use Terremark name.[11]

Controversies

Verizon has been involved in several public controversies.

On December 22, 2004, mail servers at Verizon.net were configured not to accept connections from Europe, by default, in an attempt to reduce spam email. Individual domains would only be unblocked upon request.[12]

On May 11, 2006, controversy arose when USA Today revealed that Verizon, along with AT&T Inc. and BellSouth, had turned over the call records of millions of U.S. citizens to the National Security Agency. Verizon flatly denied turning over records to the government, but did not comment on whether MCI, which it had acquired in January, had done so.[13] On October 12, 2007, the company admitted in a letter to the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce that it had turned over customer information to the FBI and other federal agencies of the U.S. government approximately 94,000 times from January 2005 to September 2007, providing such information 720 times without being presented with a court order or warrant.[14]

In September 2007, Verizon Wireless initially refused to make their mobile phone network available to NARAL Pro-Choice America for a program which allows people to sign up for pro-choice text messages, on the grounds that they had the right to block "controversial or unsavory" messages. They subsequently reversed the decision:

"It was an incorrect interpretation of a dusty internal policy, that ... was designed to ward against communications such as anonymous hate messaging and adult materials sent to children. ... [Verizon has] great respect for this free flow of ideas."[15]

The 2008 sale of land line operations in Northern New England to FairPoint Communications raised questions. The parties had to work with the governments of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to ensure the sale went forward.[citation needed]

On February 4, 2010, 4chan started receiving reports from Verizon Wireless customers that they were having difficulties accessing the site's image boards. 4chan administrators found that only traffic on port 80 to the boards.4chan.org domain was affected, leading them to believe that the block was intentional. On February 7, 2010, Verizon Wireless confirmed that 4chan.org was "explicitly blocked".[16]

In August 2010, the chairmen of Verizon and Google agreed that Network Neutrality should be defined and limited.[17] [18]

In December 2010 Verizon continued moderating its network by removing access to some IRC servers related to Wikileaks "Operation Payback".[19]

Verizon services

Verizon service van

Voice

Verizon provides several different types of land line services - standard POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) service as well as VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and optical fiber line services. In addition, Verizon offers long distance services. Verizon also offers a product that is a joint venture with Microsoft called "Verizon Web Calling", a type of VoIP service used within Windows Live Messenger. See also Iobi.

Voicemail

Verizon provides Verizon Voice Messaging — voicemail service for residences and businesses.

Wireless

For Verizon's wireless division, see Verizon Wireless.

Verizon VoiceWing

Verizon VoiceWing is a Voice over IP (VoIP) service offered by Deltathree and resold by Verizon[20] that offers phone service over a broadband Internet connection. A DSL, cable, or Verizon FiOS Internet connection, a regular telephone, a router, and a telephone adaptor are required for service. On March 31, 2009, Verizon terminated VoiceWing service for all existing subscribers.

Video

Verizon launched its FiOS Video service in Keller, Texas on September 22, 2005. FiOS TV[21] uses an optical fiber network to deliver more than 500 total channels, more than 180 digital music channels, more than 95 high-definition channels, and 10,000 video-on-demand titles. Verizon also provides DirecTV service as well.

Data

Verizon provides High Speed Internet DSL Internet service in many areas where it offers phone service. DSL is offered in various speeds ranging from 768 kbps to 15 mbps download, depending on what the local infrastructure can support.

Verizon began offering FTTP (Fiber to the Premises, or Fiber to the Home) to some subscribers in 2006. Verizon calls this "FiOS".[22]

According to the non-profit spam monitoring organization Spamhaus, Verizon has the largest number of known spammers of all networks worldwide (as of August 2, 2007).[23]

Directory operations

Main article: SuperMedia

The Yellow Pages business of Verizon is known as SuperPages, and is a Texas-based sales, publishing and related services with 1,200 directory titles and a circulation of about 121 million copies in 41 states. The web site receives approximately 17 million visitors a month. It had an operating revenue of $3.6 billion in 2004 and employs 7,300 nationwide.[24] In a move to leverage against higher traffic sites, Superpages linked up with Google to provide search advertising services to its millions of listed businesses. SuperPages will offer its advertisers the ability to bid for Google search terms.[25]

With an estimated $17 billion in assets, Verizon has spun off the business unit to finance its expansion in wireless and high-speed Internet services.[26] Verizon is not the first Baby Bell to rid itself of its directory publishing operations; Qwest sold off its QwestDex directory services to become Dex Media, and Illinois Bell, now known as AT&T, sold its directory operations to R. H. Donnelley in 1990 ("AT&T Yellow Pages published by R. H. Donnelley").

Sponsorships and naming rights

Verizon Center Chinatown, Washington, D.C.

Corporate governance

Current members of the board of directors of Verizon Communications[27] are Richard Carrión, Robert Lane, Sandra Moose, Joseph Neubauer, Thomas O'Brien, Hugh Price, Ivan Seidenberg, Walter Shipley, John R. Stafford, and Robert Storey.[28]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Verizon 2009 10-K Annual Report". Form 10-K. Verizon Communications, Inc. 2009. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
  2. ^ "Verizon - Investor Relations - Company Profile - Corporate History". Retrieved 2008-09-20.
  3. ^ "Customer Support Contacts." Verizon Communications. Retrieved on February 18, 2009.
  4. ^ Haley, Colin C. (July 25, 2002). "Genuity Jilted by Verizon, Mulls Options". Internet.com.
  5. ^ Pappalardo, Denise (February 10, 2003). "Changes afoot for Genuity customers". Network World.
  6. ^ Isadore, Chris (April 1, 2004). "AT&T, Kodak, IP out of Dow". CNN/Money.
  7. ^ Verizon to sell off Latin units, iht.com
  8. ^ Verizon, Frontier in $8.6B deal for wirelines, google.com
  9. ^ Murawski, John (2010-07-01). "Frontier phone switch starts". News & Observer. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
  10. ^ The Global 2000 for 2007, fobes.com
  11. ^ Telecompaper.com
  12. ^ Verizon persists with European email blockade, John Leyden, The Register, January 14, 2005
  13. ^ Public Hearings Sought in Phone Record Scandal, William Fisher, Inter Press Service, May 26, 2006
  14. ^ Verizon gave customer data to Government without court orders, Consumer affairs
  15. ^ Liptak, Adam (2007-09-27). Verizon Reverses Itself on Abortion Rights Messages. The New York Times, September 27, 2007. Retrieved from NYtimes.com
  16. ^ Moot (2010-02-07). Verizon Wireless confirms block. status.4chan.org, 7 February 2010. Retrieved from Status.4chan.org
  17. ^ Bloomberg.com
  18. ^ Matt Schafer (August 9, 2010). "Five Sentences from Google/Verizon that Could Change the Net Forever". Lippmannwouldroll.com. Retrieved 2010-10-17. Despite Google and Verizon's claims to support an open Internet, the two page policy proposal removes any hope of moving forward with the open Internet as we know it.
  19. ^ Verizon Blocking Anonops: Verizon purposely blocking “Operation Payback” IP’s
  20. ^ "Deltathree Reports First Quarter 2007 Financial Results". May 3, 2007.
  21. ^ "Verizon FiOS TV: FiOS TV". Archived from the original on February 11, 2006. Retrieved February 12, 2006.
  22. ^ "Verizon FiOS: FiOS for Home". Retrieved September 6, 2005.
  23. ^ "Spamhaus Statistics: The Top 10". Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  24. ^ "Verizon may sell $17 billion directory services". Billings Gazette. December 7, 2005.
  25. ^ "Verizon online directory in ad deal with Google". Reuters. March 28, 2006.
  26. ^ Ranii, David (December 6, 2005). "Donnelley likely to pass on Verizon directories". The News & Observer.
  27. ^ Investor.verizon.com
  28. ^ "Verizon Corporate Governance". Retrieved January 2, 2008.
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