Report: Verizon could sell wireline assets as part of $15B sale

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is nearing the completion of deals to sell off various assets, including wireless towers and elements of its wireline business that could fetch the company $15 billion, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing people close to the matter.

According to a number of unnamed sources, the sales will involve a number of parties and could be officially announced sometime this week.

These deals are designed as a way for Verizon to pay off debt and cover the $10.4 billion in wireless licenses it purchased during the FCC's AWS-3 auction. Besides the AWS auction, Verizon also paid $130 billion to purchase Vodafone's 45 percent stake in their U.S. wireless joint venture.  

Among the assets that Verizon is intent in offloading are parts of its wireline business.

Speculation about a possible sale of wireline assets emerged in January. Verizon's CEO Lowell McAdam told investors during the Citi 2015 Global Internet, Media & Telecommunications Conference that there were some wireline assets in some markets that would be better served by another service provider.

Unlike the deals it made to sell off its entire Northern New England wireline regional assets to FairPoint or rural properties in 14 states to Frontier, the service provider is considering selling pieces of the wireline assets in the states it currently serves.

McAdam said: "I think there's an opportunity to trim out some markets in a state and hold onto other markets in a state." 

Verizon is not the only telco that's interesting in offloading assets. AT&T, according to people close to the matter, is looking to sell off some of its data centers in a sale that could be more than $2 billion.

For more:
- WSJ has this article

Editor's Corner: Verizon's desire to sell parts of its wireline network could kick off new consolidation trend

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