Verizon

Type:	Publicly held
Industry:	Telecommunications
Founded:	1983
Founder(s):	Charles R. Lee & Ivan G. Seidenberg
Headquarters:	New York
Country:	USA
Employees:	194,000
Revenue:	$106.6 billion operating 2010
Website:	Vsrizon
Facebook:	Verizon
LinkedIn:	Verizon
Twitter:	@Verizon
Key People
Ivan G. Seidenberg, Chairman and CEO Lowell C. McAdam, President and COO Francis J. Shamm, EVP & CFO

Verizon Communications, Inc. (Verizon) is a global telecommunications and broadband provider serving more than 104 million connections in the United States. The company employs more than 196 thousand workers, and generated $106.6 million in 2010. It's headquarters is located in New York City, New York.

Verizon is a composite of Dow Jones Industrial Index and it is trading on NASDAQ and NYSE under the ticker symbol VZ.

History

Bell Atlantic Corp

Verizon Communications, Inc., formerly known as Bell Atlantic Corporation, was founded in 1983. It was one of the companies that can be traced back to Bell System, an organizational structure of AT&T, the largest private company in the U.S. with 1 million employees. The Bell System is a legally sanctioned, regulated monopoly under the Communications Act of 1934 with an objective "to make available for all the people of the United States a rapid, efficient nationwide...wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charge".

On January 1, 1984, a divestiture occurred. The 22 local operating companies under AT&T split into seven regional holding companies (RHC). The divestiture was part of the out-of-court settlement agreement between AT&T and the US Department of Justice, which filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the company for unlawfully monopolizing the telecommunications market. The case lasted for 13 years and ended in 1982. Bell Atlantic Corporation was one of the seven companies formed as a result of the AT&T split.

Bell Atlantic Corp. was composed of Bell of Pennsylvania, C&P Telephone Companies of D.C., Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia; Diamond State Telephone, and New Jersey Bell serving the states Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia and the District of Columbia. The company's headquarters was located in Philadelphia.

Bell Atlantic and NYNEX

Nynex was one of the seven RHC companies formed after the divestiture; it was composed of the New York and New England Telephone companies operating in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

In 1997, the Federal Communications Commission approved the $23 billion dollar merger between Bell Atlantic Corp. and NYNEX. Bell Atlantic was retained as the name of the new company, and the main office was in New York. Raymond W. Smith of Bell Atlantic retained his position as Chairman after the merger while Ivan G. Seidenberg, of NYNEX, became Vice Chairman, President and Chief Operating Officer. When Smith retired in 1998, Seidenberg assumed as Chairman and CEO of the company. The merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX is the beginning of the present Verizon Wireless.

Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE

GTE was the largest independent telephone company in the United States; it was formed through mergers and acquisitions of small telecommunications companies independent of Bell System. GTE was founded in 1918 by John F. O'Connell, Sigurd L. Odegard and John A. Pratt when they bought Richland Telephone Co.; they later acquired other telephone properties in Wisconsin. The partners formed a corporation in 1920 under the name Commonwealth Telephone Company. Sigurd L. Odegard became the company President.

In 1933, The company re-organized after the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression as General Telephone Corp.. In 1955, The company merged with Theodore Gary and Co. Four years later, the company merged with Sylvania Electric Products Inc., one of the leading companies in electronics, lighting, radio & television and chemistry & metallurgy. This merger 1n 1959 formed the General Telephone & Electronics Corp (GT&E).

In 1981, GTE Mobilnet was formed to construct and operate cellular systems and in 1982 the company formally changed its name to GTE Corp. By 1998, GTE became the first provider of cellular communication nationwide. By the end of the 80's GTE's annual revenue exceeded $17 billion.

GTE focused in local telecommunications business and data services during the 90's under the leadership of James L. "Rocky" Johnson, who became GTE's Chairman and CEO in 1987, and Chuck Lee, who became Chairman and CEO-elect in late 1991. The company anticipated the importance and growing market in telecommunications technology, and and its shift from analog to digital.

On June 30, 2000, GTE and Bell Atlantic Corporation entered a $116 billion merger forming Verizon Communications, Inc.. The new company was valued at $150 billion and became the largest wireline and wireless communications service provider and leader in data services in the United States.

Charles Lee of GTE assumed the Chairmanship while Ivan Seidenberg was named President. The two shared the position and responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer of the newly formed Verizon.

The company's revenue in 2003 was $67.8 billion, nearly doubling AT&T's total revenue; subsequently, on April 8, 2004, Verizon was included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Growth and Expansion

Verizon and MCI Merger

On January 6, 2006, Verizon acquired MCI, through a $ 8.5 billion transaction, to enhance the company's capability to deliver the benefits of converged communications, information and entertainment across the country and around the world. The company became a global provider of advance telecommunications and information technology solutions to large businesses as well as government entities. Verizon has more than 100 million customers in the US with a nationwide presence in wireline and wireless market.

Alltel Corp. Acquisition

In 2009, the company acquired Alltel Corp. Verizon Wireless became the largest wireless service provider in the U.S. based on total number of customers.

Latest Statistics

The company's reported total revenue for the year 2010 was $106.6 billion and it employs more than 194 thousand employees serving customers within 140 countries. The Verizon Center, located in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, is the company's operations hub.

Verizon Wireless launched its 4G LTE (fourth-generation Long Term Evolution) Mobile Broadband network in December, 2010, within 38 markets covering 110 million customers.

Verizon's latest acquisition was Terremark Worldwide Inc., under a cash-for-stock agreement valued at US $1.4 billion, in 2011. The company's move was prompted by the latest trend of wireless operator involvement and ownership of enterprise services delivered in the cloud.

Verizon Domain Name Disputes

Over the years, Verizon has been fighting for the protection of its trademark and domain name. The company filed several lawsuits against companies that registered a Verizon domain name in bad faith. One of the legal battles involving Verizon regarding its domain name was against domain portfolio owner Internet REIT; in 2007, Verizon and IREIT entered a settlement agreement. The settlement between the companies included a monetary payment to Verizon and a permanent injunction issued to IREIT prohibiting the company from registering, trafficking in, or using, as a registrant, any domain name that is identical or confusingly similar to the Verizon trademarks.

Furthermore, in 2008, Verizon won a $33.15 million cybersquatting law suit against domain name registrar OnlineNic, a company based in San Francisco that claimed 663 Verizon sites such as verizononline.com, myverizonwireless.com, 123verizonphones.com, using an automated process. The fake sites hosted ad links and pop-under advertisements, generating revenue for OnlineNIC.

ICANN and Verizon

On April 19, 2009, Verizon submitted its comments on the second version of the Draft Application Guidebook for new gTLDs. Verizon encouraged ICANN to delay any further version of the DAG and delay its timeline to introduce new gTLD until certain fundamental tresholds had been addressed, such as:

1. Completing an impartial economic study with comprehensive empirical evidence to support the need for new TLDs
2. Addressing concerns about the safety and stability of the Internet throughout the introduction of new gTLDs
3. Protecting against phishing, malware and fraud
4. Establishing a comprehensive set of protection to curb trademark abuse at all stages of the new TLD process

The company emphasized its concern over cybersquatting, domain tasting and domain kiting and over the years it has spent millions of dollars protecting its brand, trademarks and intellectual property rights in federal courts and under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. Verizon commented that the following fundamental rights protection measures are needed to address trademark concerns:

1. Expedited Suspension Mechanism
2. Creation of gTLD reserved List (White List)
3. Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure; and other concerns related to this matter.