Verizon Communications Inc (VZ)

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Verizon rumored to be eyeing purchase of Disney

By Claire Atkinson

July 1, 2017


Verizon Communications’ Lowell McAdam could be hiking the Sawtooth Mountains in Sun Valley next week, perhaps in search of his next deal now that the phone company closed its acquisition of Yahoo.
http://nypost.com/2017/07/01/verizon-rumored-to-be-eyeing-purchase-of-disney/


One rumor making the rounds last week was that Verizon may be eyeing a Disney purchase. While that sounds fantastical, a well-placed banker told On the Money not to count Verizon out.

“It feels like Verizon is playing checkers while AT&T is playing chess,” said one media observer, reflecting the view that Verizon needs more content assets to shore up its mobile ad ambitions.

Meanwhile, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who is bagging Time Warner, is also slated to attend Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley mogulfest, along with Time Warner’s CEO Jeff Bewkes and his three divisional chiefs: John Martin, Richard Plepler and Kevin Tsujihara.

The three amigos will be part of AT&T’s Dallas-headquartered telecom universe come fall. We’d love to hear if the gang goes whitewater rafting together in Sun Valley and what news they’ll discuss.

The high-octane deal-making powwow will be absent Disney CEO Bob Iger, Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and former Uber chief Travis Kalanick.

They’re not on the attendee list, though they could always just show up. In the case of Kalanick, however, we hear the Allen & Co. hosts are very buttoned up and do not tolerate bad-boy behavior from those on the invite list — hence his absence.

There’s a sprinkling of businesswomen on the attendee list this year: Sara Blakely of Spanx, GM’s Mary Barra and IBM’s Virginia Rometty.

Could Barra be in the driver’s seat and headed to replace Kalanick at Uber? On the Money hears she is certainly a candidate. Tipsters also shared that ViaSat, a global broadband company that among other things is used to “empower international war fighters on the front lines of battle,” will be part of the new tech breed lined up to present.