Verizon has been working for some time to find a company to merge with. For months Charter and Verizon had talks about a possible merger.
Why is Verizon looking to buy a cable TV company? Reports are that the wireless phone service growth has slowed, and Verizon is facing pressure from AT&T. The merger of DIRECTV and AT&T has given them an edge over Verizon. An edge that AT&T is making the most of by offering bundle deals of wireless and DIRECTV or DIRECTV NOW. Something Verizon is unable to do outside of its FiOS footprint.
A merger between Verizon and Charter also made sense because Charter and Verizon both have plans to release a 5G Internet service for homes and mobile devices.
Now it has been reported that these talks ended in a $100 million offer from Verizon to buy Charter. An offer that Charter quickly turned down.
“To be sure, we understand why Verizon would be interested,” Moffett wrote. “The next generation of wireless will be about small cells with small radii. And every one of those cells needs to be connected to a wire. That means lots and lots of wires. And Cable has the most wires.”
Now it seems that Verizon is looking around at other companies to buy. These companies include Sirius XM and Comcast.
Verizon will close on its deal to buy Yahoo and merge it with its AOL unit this month. After that deal closes, it is reported that Verizon will launch a new live TV streaming service sometime this summer.
Source: FierceCable
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